
Book 



^^'- 1 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 






ayxL 




.ay)'^-r-<- ^ ^(r?^y, 



WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISOJy 

AND HIS TIMES; 

OR, 

SKETCHES OF THE ANTI- SLAVERY MOVEME 

IN AMERICA, 



THE MAN WHO WAS ITS FOUNDER AND MORAL LEADER 



By OLIVER JOHNSON 

WTH AN INTRODUCTION UT 

JOHN G . W H I T T I E K . 



f/i 



O, my hrethreii I I liave told 

Jlost bitter truth, but Avitbout bitterness. — Colei?idge. 



BOSTON: 
*. B. B. RUSSELL & CO., No. 57 CORNHILL. 

SAN FRANCISCO : A. L. BANCROFT & CO. PORTLAND : JOHN BUSS- 
PHILADELPHIA : QUAKER CITY PUBLISHING HOUSE. 
NEW YORK: CHARLES DREW. CHICAGO: ANDREWS & DORi 
INDIANAPOLIS, IND. : FRED L. HORTON & CO. 

1880. 



/ 



I / 



' ^ 






/ 


Copgrtgfjt, 


By B. B. RUSSELL & CO., 


1 


1879. 



Boston : 
Wright & Pottf.u Trintinq Compant, 
/ 79 Mii.K Strekt. 

1879. 



fa tbe 
SURVIVING HEROES 

OF THK 

^I^EItlCJ^iT J^ IT a? I - S X. -A- "V E 12. "5r STI2/"U"C3-C3-XjE, 

IN WHATEVER FIELD OR BY WHATEVER INSTRUMENTALITIES 
THEY CONSCIENTIOUSLY LABORED 

FOB THE 

DELIVERANCE OF THE LAND FROM THE CRIME AND CURSE 
OF HUMAN BONDAGE, 

Ci^ts Uolumc 

IS FRATERNALLY INSCRIBED BY" 

THE AUTHOR. 



PREFACE. 



Some months since the writer of these pages was invited to 
contribute to the " New York Tribune " a short series of papers, 
embracino^ some of his recollections of the American Anti-Slav- 
ery Movement, and of the persons most prominently connected 
therewith. His attempt to fulfil this task was received with so 
much favor in various quarters, that he was induced, the Editor 
of the " Tribune " kindly consenting, to go far beyond his orig- 
inal intention, and take a rapid survey of the whole movement, 
which, beginning in the labors of William Lloyd Garrison, in 
1829, finally led to the abolition of slavery by the exercise of the 
powers of war, as a means of putting down the Rebellion. The 
sketches thus written are now gathered, with some slight revision, 
and with large additions, into a volume, at the suggestion of 
many of the writer's old friends, and in the belief that in this 
form they will meet a public want. 

The writer desires it to be understood that this volume does 
not claim to be a complete history of the Anti-Slavery Move- 
ment, either in its moral or political aspects. His purpose is 
simply to make a contribution, which he hopes will be of some 
value, to the materials for such a history, which may be written 
by another hand, when the prejudices and passions engendered 
by the confl^ict have passed away. The author has attempted, in 
a series of brief sketches, to present an outline, first, of the 
action of the Abolitionists up to the divisions of 1839-40 ; and. 



Vi TREFACE. 

Becondly, after stating as impartially as he is able the circum- 
stances and causes of those divisions, to follow the course of the 
American Anti-Slavery Society, and those who co-operated with 
it, under the lead of Mr. Garrison, to the close of the conflict. 
This plan, it will be seen, does not embrace a history, however 
brief, of the anti-slavery political parties, or of the labors of 
those who worked through these instrumentalities to prevent the 
extension of slavery, and to resist its encroachments upon the 
institutions of freedom. Without intending to disparage, in any 
degree, the action of those parties, or of the men who labored in 
and through them, but, on the contrary, while gratefully acknowl- 
edging the importance and value of what they accomplished, the 
writer has chosen to confine himself mainly to an account of the 
MORAL AGITATION, which was the original cause and constant 
stimulus of political action ; and this because, while the progress 
of the movement Jn a political sense, was necessarily conspicuous, 
and is therefore certain to attract the attention of the historian, — 
indeed has already been treated with great fullness and ample 
justice by the Hon. Henry Wilson, in his " History of the Rise 
and Fall of the Slave Power," — the distinctively moral forces, 
which were so powerful in moulding public sentiment, are far 
less likely to receive the attention they deserve. 

Mr. Garrison is the central figure in these pages, which con- 
tain an outline of his life and public career as the founder and 
leader of the Anti-Slavery Movement. He will be forever hon- 
ored, not, indeed, as the first American to denounce slavery as a 
sin and seek its abolition, — for in this a multitude of honorable 
and eminent men were before him, — but the first to unfurl the 
banner of immediate and unconditional emancipation, and 
to organize upon that principle a movement which, under God, 
proved mighty enough to accomplish its object. The laurel will 
be the more willingly placed upon his brow because he never 



PREFACE. VU 

claimed it for himself, or in any way sought to win the applause 
of his countrymen. In his speech at the Breakfast given in his 
honor in London, in 1867, he said : — 

*' I must here disclaim, with all sincerity of soul, any special 
praise for anything that I have done. I have simply tried to 
maintain the integrity of my soul before God, and to do my duty. 
I have refused to go with the multitude to do evil. I have 
endeavored to save my country from ruin. I have sought to 
liberate such as were held captive in the house of bondage. But 
all this I ought to have done." 

Having been associated with Mr. Garrison from the beginning, 
and served the cause at times not only as a lecturer, but as tem- 
porary Editor of " The Liberator," and later, at different periods, 
as Editor of the Ohio " Anti-Slavery Bugle," the " Pennsylvania 
Freeman," and the " National Anti-Slavery Standard," the writer 
has enjoyed unusual opportunities for observing the progress of 
the cause, for studying its principles and the nature and char- 
acter of the opposition arrayed against it, as well as for becoming 
acquainted with the men and women by whose toils and sacri- 
fices it was carried forward, through great difficulties, to a suc- 
cessful issue. With Mr. Garrison himself he was on terms of 
the closest intimacy, from the founding of " The Liberator" to 
the day of his death, and is therefore entitled to speak of his 
character, his aims^ purposes and spirit, with something like 
authority. In doing so, however, he has aimed to speak not as a 
partisan, but as a conscientious if not a quite impartial observer. 
He has written of matters and things, " all of which he saw, and 
part of which he was " ; and yet, writing sometimes in haste and 
without opportunity to consult original documents, it will be 
strange if he has not fallen into some minor errors, which, 
however, it is believed, will not impair the integrity of his nar- 
rative. 



Vlll PREFACE. 

Of one deficiency the author is deeply sensible. He has done 
but scant justice to many noble workers in the cause, whose 
zeal, devotion, and unswerving loyalty entitle them to the grati- 
tude of mankind. Most of these, indeed, limited as he was for 
space, he has not been able so much as to name. But their 
" record is on high," and they have their reward in the remem- 
brance of what they did to open the way for the emancipation of 
four millions of slaves. Let me here record, and make my own, 
the tribute paid to them by Mr. Garrison, himself, in London, in 
18G7: 

" Here allow me to pay a brief tribute to the American 
Abolitionists. Putting myself entirely out of the question, I 
believe that in no land, at any time, was there ever a more de- 
voted, self-sacrificing, and uncompromising band of. men and 
women. Nothing can be said to their credit which they do not 
deserve. With apostolic zeal, they counted nothing dear to 
them for the sake of the slave, and him dehumanized. But 
whatever has been achieved through them is all of God, to whom 
alone is the glory due. Thankful are we all that we have been 
permitted to live to see this day, for our country's sake, and for 
the good of mankind. Of course we are glad that our reproach 
is at last taken away ; for it is ever desirable, if possible, to have 
the good opinions of our fellow-men ; but if, to secure these, we 
must sell our manhood, and sully our souls, then their bad 
opinions of us are to be coveted instead." 

If this volume shall serve to give to the people of this and 
future generations a clearer apprehension of the instrumentalities 
and influences by which American slavery was overthrown, the 
writer's highest ambition will be fulfilled. 

81 Columbia Heights, Brooklyn, N. Y. 



INTRODUCTION. 



I DO not know that any word of mine can give 
additional interest to this memorial of William Lloyd 
Garrison, from the pen of one of his earliest and 
most devoted friends, whose privilege it has been to 
share his confidence and his labors for nearly half a 
century ; but I cannot well forego the opportunity 
afforded me to add briefly my testimony to the tribute 
of the following pages to the memory of the great 
Eeformer, whose friendship I have shared, and with 
whom I have been associated in a common cause from 
youth to age. 

My acquaintance witli him commenced in boyhood. 
My father was a subscriber to his first paper, the " Free 
Press," and the humanitarian tone of his editorials 
awakened a deep interest in our little household, which 
was increased by a visit which he made us. When he 
afterwards edited the "Journal of the Times," at 
Bennington, Vt., I ventured to write him a letter of 
encouragement and sympathy, urging him to continue 
his labors against slavery, and assuring him that he 
could "do great things," an unconscious prophecy 
which has been fulfilled beyond the dream of my boy- 
ish entliusiasm. The friendship thus commenced has 



X INTRODUCTION. 

remained unbroken through half a century, confirming 
my early confidence in his zeal and devotion, and in 
the great intellectual and moral strength which he 
brou2:ht to the cause with which his name is identified. 
During the long and hard struggle in which the 
Abolitionists were engaged, and amidst the new and 
difiicult questions and side-issues which presented 
themselves, it could scarcely be otherwise than that 
differences of opinion and action should arise among 
them. The leader and his disciples could not always 
see alike. My friend, the author of this book, I 
think, generally found himself in full accord w^ith 
him, while I often decidedly dissented. I felt it my 
duty to use my right of citizenship at the ballot-box 
in the cause of liberty, w^hile Garrison, with equal 
sincerity, judged and counselled otherwise. Each 
acted under a sense of individual duty and responsi- 
bility, and our personal relations were undisturbed. 
If, at times, the great anti-slavery leader failed to do 
justice to the motives of those who, while in hearty 
sympathy with his hatred of slavery, did not agree 
with some of his opinions and methods, it was but the 
pardonable and not unnatural result of his intensity of 
purpose, and his self-identification with the cause he 
advocated ; and, while compelled to dissent, in some 
particulars, from his judgment of men and measures, 
the great mass of the anti-slavery people recognized 
his moral leadership. The controversies of Old and 
New oriranization, Non-Resistance and Political ac- 
tion, may now be looked upon by the parties to them, 
who still survive, with the philosophic calmness which 



INTRODUCTION. XI 

follows the subsidence of prejudice and passion. We 
were but fallible men, and doubtless often erred in 
feeling, speech and action. Ours was but the common 
experience of Keformers in all ages. 

" Never in Custom's oiled grooves 
The world to a higher level moves, 
But grates and grinds with friction hard 
On granite bowlder and flinty shard. 
Ever the Virtues blush to find 
The Vices wearing their badge behind, 
And Graces and Charities feel the fire 
Wherein the sins of the age expire." 

It is too late now to dwell on these differences. I 
choose rather, with a feeling of gratitude to God, to 
recall the great happiness of laboring with the noble 
company of whom Garrison was the central figure. I 
love to think of him as he seemed to me, when in the 
fresh dawn of manhood he sat with me in the old 
Haverhill farm-house, revolving even then schemes of 
benevolence ; or, with cheery smile, welcoming me 
to his frugal meal of bread and milk in the dingy 
Boston printing-room ; or, as I found him in the gray 
December morning in the small attic of a colored man, 
in Philadelphia, finishing his night-long task of draft- 
ins: his immortal " Declaration of Sentiments " of the 
American Anti-Slavery Society ; or, as I saw him in 
the jail of Leverett Street, after his almost miraculous 
escape from the mob, playfully inviting me to share 
the safe lodgings which the State had provided for 
him ; and in all the varied scenes and s-ltuations where 
we acted together our parts in the great endeavor and 
success of Freedom. 



Xll INTRODUCTION. 

The verdict of posterity in his case may be safely 
anticipated. With the true Reformers and Benefactors 
of his i*ace he occupies a place inferior to none other. 
The private lives of many who fought well the battles 
of humanity have not been without spot or blemish. 
But his private character, like his public, knew no 
dishonor. No shadow of suspicion rests upon the 
white statue of a life, the fitting garland of which 
should be the Alpine flower that symbolizes Noble 
Purity. 

JOHN G. AVHITTIER. 
10th Mo. 3, 1879. 



CONTENTS. 



I. 

Preliminary — The Eevolutionary Period — Tlie Quakers — Benja- 
min Lundy — The Hour and the Man — Birth and Boyhood of 
Garrison — He Learns the Trade of a Printer — Becomes a 
Writer and an Editor — In Boston and Bennington — Joins 
Lundy in Baltimore — His Imprisonment, .... 19 

IL 

Garrison's Imprisonment, and its Effects at the North — The Release 
— Whittier, Clay, Tappan — Partnership of Lundy and Garrison 
Dissolved — Tribute of the Latter to the Former^Founding of 
"The Liberator" in Boston rather than in Washington — Garrison 
on a Lecturing Tour—Boston and the Cotton Traffic — Garrison 
Appeals in Vain to the Clergy — Dr. Lyman Beecher and Jere- 
miah Evarts — "The Liberator" Born in a Dark Time — Purposes 
and Hopes of its Founder — Responsibility of the Church, , 35 

IIL 

The First Volume of " The Liberator ; " Its Size and Appearance — 
Scenes in the Office — Distinguished Visitors — Mr. Garrison's 
Alleged " Bitterness" — Alarm of the Slaveholders — Incitements 
to Kidnappers — Indifference at the North — The Nat Turner 
Insurrection — Appeal of "The National Intelligencer" to the 
North — Mr. Garrison's Defence, 50 

IV. 

Mr. Garrison's Early Orthodoxy — No Odor of Heresy about him 
until long after the Churches and the Clergy had Rejected his 
Message — A Christian at the Last no less than at the First — 
Reluctance of Ministers to Pray in Anti-Slavery Meetings — 
Rev. Amos A. Phelps and his Book — The A. B. C. F. M. — The 
Methodist Church — Dr. Whedon's Denial — Testimony of Judge 
Jay — The Freewill Baptists, 67 



XIV CONTENTS. 

V. 

The First Anti-Slavery Society — Dififerences Among Friends — 
Triumph of Principle over Expediency — The Anti-Slavery 
Twelve and their One Traitor — A Dismal but an Auspicious 
Night — The Quaker Hatter — The First Appeal to the Public — 
Dr. Beecher's Opposition — Emerson — Great Expectations and 
an Invincible Faith — Might of the Opposition — The Quakers 

— Cheering Words from Over the Sea, 82 

VI. 

Colorphobia Illustrated — Its Meanness and Cruelty — Doctors Gur- 
ley and Bacon — A Contrast — The Nat Turner Insurrection — 
Discussion in Virginia — Why it Failed to Accomplish Anything 

— Power of Immediatism as a Principle, .... 99 

VII. 

Battle with the Colonization Society — Garrison's "Thoughts" — 
An Indictment with Ten Counts — Discussion — Mr. Garrison 
gives the Colored People a Plearing — Attempt to Found a Negro 
College in New Haven — The Town Thrown into an Uproar — 
The Project Defeated — The Canterbury Disgrace— The Burleigh 
Brothers — Why Windham County is Rejiublicau, . . 112 

VIII. 

Mr. Garrison goes to England — His Arrival Opportune — British 
Emancipation — Exposure of the Colonization Scheme — Protest 
of Wilberforce and Others — Death of Wilberforce- Mr. Garri- 
son Speaks in Exeter Hall — Writes to the Loudon " Patriot" — 
Taken for a Negro by Buxton — George Thompson — His Mission 
to America and its Results — He Returns to England — Prepar- 
ing to Form a National Society— Mrs. Child's Appeal — Phelps's 
Lectures on Slavery —"Western Reserve College — President 
Storrs and Professors Green and Wright — Death of President 
Storrs — Mob in New York, . . 129 

IX. 

Formation of the American Anti-Slavery Society — Character and 
Spirit of the Convention — The Declaration of Sentiments 
Drafted by Garrison — Close of the Convention — The Society 
Begins its Work — Headquarters in New York — The First An- 
niversary — The Bible Society Tested and Found Wanting — 
Hostility of the Press — Attitude of the Churches — Apologies 
for Slavery — Mobs — Judge Jay — W. I. Emancipation, . 147 



CONTENTS. XV 

X. 

The Lane Theological Seminary — Arthur Tappan and Dr. Beecher 

— A Remarkable Class of Students — Discussion of the Slavery- 
Question — Conversion of the Students to Abolitionism — In- 
tense Excitement — The Students Become Missionaries — The 
Trustees Enact a Gag-Law — The Faculty Submits — Dr. Beecher 
Yields to Temptation and Goes into Eclipse — The Students lie- 
fuse the Gag and Ask for a Dismission — The Faculty in Self- 
Defence, etc., . « 156 

XL 

Progress of the Cause — Madness of the Opposition — Southern 
Threats and Northern Menaces — Firmness of Arthur Tappan — 
Northern Colleges — Mutilation of Books — Beginning of a 
" Reign of Terror " — Movement of Conservatives in Boston 

— James G. Birney — Anti-Slavery Publications Sent to the 
South — Post-Office in Charleston Broken Open by a Mob — 

• Pro-Slavery Demonstration in Boston — Mob of *' Gentlemen 
of Property and Standing" — Garrison Dragged Through the 
Streets and Thrust into Jail — Dr. Channing's Tribute to the 
Abolitionists, 182 

XIL 

Effects of the Boston Mob — Francis Jackson's Bravery — Harriet 
Martiueau — Mrs. Chapman and her Work — Mobs in Montpelier, 
Vt., and Utica, N. Y. — Gerrit Smith — Alvan Stewart — Burning- 
of Pennsylvania Hall — Attempts to Put the Abolitionists Down 
by Law — Demands of the South — Gov. Everett — Prosecution 
of Dr. Crandall — Flogging of Amos Dresser — Requisition from 
the Governor of Alabama — Harsh Language, . . . 203 

XIIL 

Persecution of James G. Birney — Press Destroyed — The Martyr- 
dom of Lovejoy — Meeting in Faneuil Hall — Dr. Channing — 
Wendell Phillips — Edmund Quincy, 220 

XIV. 

Attitude of the Churches — Anti-Slavery Agitation among the 
Methodists — Persecution of Abolitionists — The Wesleyan Seces- 
sion — The Division of 1844^- The Methodist Church a Type 
of Others — The Baptists — Orthodox Authorities — Old School 
Covenanters — The Free Presbyterians — The Quakers, . 234 



XVi CONTENTS. 

XV. 

Activity of Women — Example of England and Virginia — Mrs. 
Mott in the Convention of 1833 — Female Societies— Sarah and 
Angelina Grimkd— Their Visit to New York — Their Labors in 
Massachusetts — The "Brookfield Bull " — Whittier's Poem — 
" Sonthside '' Adams and Governor Wise, .... 254 

XVI. 

The Woman Question — The New England Convention Admits 
Women— Mr. Garrison's "Heresies" — The Clerical Appeal — 
A Confession — Attempts to Narrow the Platform — Sectarian 
Assumptions — Whittier's Testimony — Catholicity of the Move- 
ment — The Peace Discussion and its Fruits — Attempt to 
Revolutionize the Massachusetts Society — A New Paper — 
"New Organization" — Mrs. Chapman's History, "Right and 
Wrong in Massachusetts," 271 

XVII. 
The American Society in 1839 Admits Women — Strong Protest 
Against the Measure — Scheme for Rescinding the Action in 
1840 — Struggle of the Two Parties — Transfer of "The Eman- 
cipator " — A Steamboat Excursion — The Admission of Women 
Confirmed — A Woman on the Business Committee — A New 
National Society — Its History — Its Decease — American Mis- 
sionary Association— The Old Society — "National Anti-Slavery 
Standard" and its Editors — Garrison's Tribute to Arthur Tap- 
pan — John A. Collins — N. P. Rogers — Abby Kelley, . 286 

XVIII. 
Formation of the Liberty Party — Complicated with " New Organ- 
ization " — Mr. Garrison's Opposition, and the Reasons thereof — 
Samuel E. Sewall and .John G. Whittier— Parties Limited by 
the Constitution — In Danger of Degenerating — Slavery Abol- 
ished by Southern Madness rather than by Northern Principle — 
Moral Agitation of Paramount Importance — Testimony of 
Frederick Douglass, 305 

XIX. 

Explanatory and Apologetic — The Moral Agitation, its Instruments, 
Agents and Resources — Bad Effects of the Secession — The Gar- 
risonians " Hold the Fort" — The Movement Still Formidable — 
Pennsylvania- The Western Society — Anti-Slavery Papers — 
Annexation of Texas — Theodore Parker — The Lecturing Agents 
— Rev. Samuel May — Stephen S. Foster — Parker Pillsbury, 316 



CONTENTS. XVll 

XX. 

The Question of Disunion — The Declaration of 1833 — The Ameri- 
can Idol — The " Covenant with Death," and the "Agreement with 
Hell" — Dr. Channing's Opinion — "No Union with Slavehold- 
ers" — The Demoralizing Influence of the Constitution — The 
Claim that it was Anti-Slavery — John Quincy Adams's Opinion 

— Judge Jay in Favor of Disunion — Need of a Sound Ethical 
Basis — Political Effects of the Agitation — The Rebellion 
Changes the Issue — Mr. Garrison Vindicated, . . .334 

XXI. 

Mr. Garrison's Visits Abroad — The London Conference of 1840 — 
American Women Excluded — Mr. Garrison Refuses to be a 
Member — Excitement in England — O'Connell and Bowring — 
The Visit of 1846 — The Free Church of Scotland — The Visit 
of 1867 — The London Breakfast — John Bright — The Duke of 
Argyll — John Stuart Mill — Goldwin Smith — George Thomp- 
son — Speech of Mr. Garrison — The Visit of 1877 — Sight-seeing 

— Visits to Old Friends — Delectable Days — Farewells, . 349 

XXII. 

Mr. Garrison's Religious Opinions — Changes in Them — No Dis- 
turbance of the Foundations — The Charge of Infidelity — Mr. 
Garrison in Self-Defence — His Orthodoxy — His Christian 
Spirit — Purifying Effects of the Anti-Slavery Movement — 
Moral Influence of the Anti-Slavery Papers — Faith in Free 
Discussion — Spiritualism, ....... 363 

XXIIL 

Subjects Omitted — The Absorbing Issue in Politics — The Moral 
Agitation More Intense than Ever — The Fugitive Slave Law — 
Webster's Apostasy — Trial of Castner Han way — Anniversary, 
of the American Anti-Slavery Society Invaded by a Mob — Driven 
from New York for Two Years — A Flying Leap — Lincoln's 
Administration — His Re-election — Mr. Garrison's Attitude — 
Visit to Charleston — Scenes and Incidents — Withdrawal from the 
American Anti-Slavery Society — Close of " The Liberator," 377 

XXIV. 

Mr. Garrison's Last Years — Tokens of Public Respect — His Activ- 
ity in Reforms — His Power as a Public Speaker — His Modesty 

— His Hopefulness — His Private and Domestic Life — His Last 
Illness and Death — The Funeral Services. .... 393 



XVUl 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Portrait of Mr. Garrison, 

Mr. Garrison's Birthplace, 

The Boston Mob of 1835, 

Fac-simile of "The Liberator" Heading, 

The Emancipation Group, 

Mr. Garrison's Late Residence, . 



Frontispiece. 
Page 25 

♦' 198 

" 325 

" .382 

« 398 



GAEEISON AND HIS TIMES. 



I. 

Preliminary — The Revolutionary Period — Tlie Quakers — Benja- 
min Lundy — The Hour and the Man — Birth and Boyhood of 
Garrison — He Learns the Trade of a Printer — Becomes a 
Writer and an Editor — In Boston and Bennington — Joins 
Lundy in Baltimore — His Imprisonment. 

The abolition of slavery iu the United States is an 
event of the past, and the generation now coming 
upon the stage will know no more of the struggles it 
cost, or of the men and women by whose toils and 
sacrifices it was brousrht about than can be found in a 
chapter of history but imperfectly written as yet, or 
than they may be able to gather from the private 
recollections of the now venerable actors who are 
rapidly disappearing from the field on which their 
triumphs were won. The war in which the great con- 
flict was brought to its final culmination, and in which 
such mighty moral and material forces were engaged, 
will be duly celebrated in history ; but the moral and 
political agitations that preceded and led up to that 
event, and the men and women who took a conspicuous 
and honorable part therein, are not so likely to 
receive from posterity the tribute due to their cour- 
ageous devotion to the cause of justice and liberty. 
The lines of this picture are growing fixinter day 
by day, and soon every hand that can retouch them 
will be mouldering in the dust. As one who took a 
constant, though modest part in those agitations, from 



20 GARRISON AND IIIS TIMES. 

their feeble beginning to their triumphant conclusion, 
I have undertaken to give the public the benefit of 
some of my recollections of the events of that time, 
and of the actors therein. 

All great changes in human affairs spring from 
causes whose workings may be traced, with more or less 
distinctness, to a remote past. Slavery being a very 
ancient institution, it was not left to America to make 
the first protest against it. There was not, and there 
could not be any originalit}^ in the American Anti- 
Slaveiy movement. The principles involved were as 
old as humanity itself, and had their champions and 
martyrs long before the discovery of the New World. 
Puring the colonial period of our history, and for some 
years after the adoption of the Constitution, there was 
a strong current of opposition to slavery. The discus- 
sions that preceded the Revolutionary War, involving 
as they did the fundamental principles of human 
liberty, could not but remind all thoughtful persons of 
the guilt and shame of slaveholding. The Declaration 
of Independence, though adopted for no such purpose, 
virtually set the seal of condemnation upon slavery as 
a system at war with human nature and the law of God. 
In lifting up that beacon-light before the world, the 
American people challenged the judgment of mankind 
upon their shameful inconsistency in making merchan- 
dise of human flesh. The sting of " the world's 
reproach around them burning " was keenly felt by 
many of the most eminent statesmen, divines and phil- 
anthropists of that day. Franklin, Rush, Hamilton and 
Jay ; Hopkins, Edwards and Stiles ; and Woohnan, 
Lay and Benezet, among the Quakers, deserve honor- 
able mention for their sturdy and unyielding hostility 
to slavery. To the credit of the Quakers as a body it 
should be said, that as early as 1780, after a long and 
serious contest, they emancipated all their slaves, 
which Avere very numerous in Maryland, New Jersey 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 21 

and Pennsylvania, one monthly meeting setting free 
eleven hundred. They also refused to hire slave-labor 
of the masters. 

In a certain sense the Abolitionists of a later period 
entered into and completed the labors of these noble 
and far-seeing men. But I am not to write a history 
of the introduction of slavery into this country, nor to 
record the efforts of some of the founders of the 
Republic to resist its encroachments. I set my stake 
at the beginning of the later movement against slavery, 
which, dating from 1829, went forward with constantly 
increasins: momentum until the fetters of the slave 
were melted in the hot flames of war. At the date 
above mentioned there was hardly a ripple of excite- 
ment about slavery in any part of the nation. The 
fathers of the Republic had fallen asleep ; the Anti- 
Slavery sentiment of the country, defeated in the spas- 
modic Missouri struggle in 1821, had become too feeble 
to utter even a whisper. From one year's end to 
another there was scarcely a newspaper in all the land 
that made the slightest allusion to the subject. The 
Abolition societies in which Franklin and Rush and Jay 
were once so active were either dead or sleeping. One 
voice there was, and one only. Need I say that was 
the voice of a Quaker? It was Benjamin Lundy, who, 
in his little paper with a great name, — " The Genius 
of Universal Emancipation," — lifted up that "voice 
crying in the wilderness," first in Ohio, next in Ten- 
nessee, and subsequently in Baltimore, then a mart of 
the domestic trafiic in slaves. It was a brave and an 
earnest voice, but it was scarcely heard outside of the 
Quaker body, to which Mr. Lundy belonged, and which 
was fast becoming almost as torpid as other religious 
bodies on this question. There was a time, as some 
one has said, when one Quaker was enough to shake 
the country for twenty miles around ; but the time 
came at length when it required the whole country for 



22 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

twenty miles around to shake one Quaker ! The cotton 
traffic had become immensely profitable, and Quakers 
in the jrreat cities loved its srains as well as others. 
The still, small voice of conscience was overwhelmed 
by the hoarse clamors of avarice. It was a universally 
accepted proverb that slavery was absolutely necessary 
to the production of a staple that was filling the coffers 
of Northern merchants and manufacturers with untold 
wealth. The moral sense of the people of the North 
became paralyzed. Pulpit and press were generally 
silent. If they spoke at all it was only to say that 
slavery was too dangerous a subject to be discussed — 
that the Union would not long survive its agitation. 
To Benjamin Lundy chiefly belongs the honor of keep- 
ing the flame of Anti-Slavery sentiment from utterly 
dying out in those dark days, and putting the burning 
torch of liberty into the hands of the man raised up 
by Providence to lead the new crusade against the 
Slave Power. 

No careful student of history can fail to be struck 
by the fact that in every crisis of human aflfairs men 
have been raised up with special qualifications for the 
w^ork that needed to be done at that particular time. 
The hour strikes for the achievement of a great reform, 
and lo ! a man appears upon the stage, commissioned 
and equipped of God for the task. He gives the key- 
note for rallying thousands ; he sounds the charge 
against an iniquitous institution, mighty in aspect, but 
ripening for destruction. He calls a nation to repent- 
ance for its crimes against humanity, and warns it of 
the Divine retributions for sin. Such men are the 
prophets of God in their generation — misrepresented, 
persecuted, maligned, and sometimes slain ; but always 
honored of God, and sure at last to be honored of 
men. What a catalogue of such men, "of whom the 
world Avas not worthy," might be culled from the pages 
of history — men whose bloody footsteps arc the way- 



GARRISON AND IIIS TIMES. 23 

marks of human progress, and to whom, under God, 
we owe what is most vaUuible m our civilization, and 
most beneficent in the application of Christianity to 
society and its institutions. 

One of the greatest of all this host, the prophet of 
one of the grandest reforms that the world has ever 
w^itnessed, was the man wdiose labors and achievements 
will find a partial record in these pages. It is not any 
clearer to me that Moses was commissioned to lead the 
children of Israel out of the house of bondage, that 
Elijah was sent of God to rebuke the iniquity of Ahab, 
or that Jesus of Nazareth (I speak Avith reverence) 
came into the world to " bear witness unto the truth," 
than it is that Mr. Garrison was raised up by Divine 
Providence to deliver this Republic from the sin and 
crime of slavery. The circumstances of his appear- 
ance were remarkable. The nation was fast asleep, 
and heard not the rumblings of the earthquake that 
threatened her destruction. The state was morally 
paralyzed ; the pulpit was dumb ; the church heeded 
not tiie cry of the slave. Commerce, greedy of gain, 
piled her hoards by the unpaid toil of the bondman. 
Judgment was turned away backward ; Justice stood 
afar ofi*; Truth was foUen in the street, and Equity 
could not enter. The hands of the people were defiled 
with blood, their fingers with iniquity ; their lips spoke 
lies, their tongues muttered perverseness. Men talked 
of slavery in "that day (when they talked at all) with 
an incoherency like that of Bedlam, with a moral 
blindness and perverseness like that of Sodom and 
Gomorrah. That in this hour of thick darkness a voice 
was heard pleading, trumpet-tongued, for immediate 
emancipation, as the duty of every master and the 
right of every slave, seems to us now one of the most 
signal illustrations of the immanence of God in human 
affairs. I must believe that that voice, crying in the 
wilderness and calling the people to repentance, was 



24 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

divinely inspired — not, indeed, in a miraculous, but 
certainly in a jDrovidential sense. It spoke for God's 
outraged law of justice and love. It pleaded for the 
inalienable rights of man. It rebuked a sin that was 
prc^^ing upon the nation's life. 



William Lloyd Garrison was born in Newbury- 
port, Mass., in a house still standing in close prox- 
imity to the church, under whose pulpit repose the 
remains of George Whitefield, on the 10th of De- 
cember, 1805. His father was a sea-captain from 
New Brunswick, and a man of some literary ability 
and ambition. His mother was a deei)ly religious 
woman — a Baptist, when to be such required no 
small amount of moral courage. The son inherited 
the mother's intuitive reverence for God and for human 
nature as his image, her fine moral and spiritual sen- 
sitiveness, and her abhorrence of oppression in all its 
forms. As a boy he was responsive to those senti- 
ments of liberty and patriotism which pervaded the 
political and social atmosphere of the time. His 
opinions upon every question affecting the public wel- 
fare rested upon the solid basis of the Divine Law. 
Ethical considerations in his mind outweio:hed all 
others, and any compromise with an unjust or oppres- 
sive institution was, in his eyes, a sin to be rebuked 
and denounced. His clear moral vision, penetrating 
at once all the subterfuges of the champions and apol- 
ogists of slavery, enabled him to discern the true 
character of the system, and to depict it in language 
that stirred the consciences and moved the hearts oi 
those Avho read or listened. 

Mrs. Garrison, while her son was yet too small to 
support comfortably the weight of the lapstone, set 
him to learning the trade of a shoemaker. As he was 
unhappy in this occupation, she next apprenticed him 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 25 

to a, c«ibinet-maker. But he was still discontented, 
yearning continually for an occupation more congenial 
to his feelings and tastes, and his articles of appren- 
ticeship were cancelled at his own earnest request. 
lie found, at length, his right place in a printing-office 
in his native place. This proved for him both high 
school and college, from which he graxluated with 
honor after a long and faithful apprenticeship. During 
the period of his minority he became deeply iuterested 
in current moral and political questions, upon which 
he wrote frequently and acceptably for the newspaper 
on which he daily worked as a printer, "The New- 
burj^port Herald." He also contributed to a Boston 
paper a series of political essays, which, being anony- 
;nous, were by many attributed to the Plon. Timothy 
Pickering, then one of the most eminent citizens of 
Massachusetts. At the end of his apprenticeship ho 
became the editor of a new paper, "The Free Press," 
in his native place. It was distinguished for its high 
moral tone, but proved unremunerative, as such papers 
generally do. He was next heard of as editor of " The 
National Philanthropist," in Boston, the first paper 
ever established to support the doctrine of total absti- 
nence from intoxicating drinks. The theme was con- 
genial to him, and he discussed it with great earnest- 
ness and ability. The motto of the paper was his 
own. It expressed a great truth in these Avords : 
"Moderate drinking is the down-hill road to drunken- 
ness." This-was in 1827-28. While engaged upon 
this paper he made the acquaintance of Benjamin 
Lundy, who came to Boston for the purpose of inter- 
esting some of the people of that city in the question 
of slavery. 

Sometime in 1828 Mr. Garrison accepted an invi- 
tation to go to Bennington, Vt., to establish a paper 
for the support of John Quiucy Adams for the Presi- 
dency. The title of this paper was "The Journal 



26 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

of the Times." As n boy, I had greatly admired 
" The National Phihmthropist," and had tried my own 
'prentice hand as a writer in its cokimns. But 1 found 
new cause for admiring "The Journal of the Times" 
in the fact that it was published in my native Slate. 
How eagerly did I read and tile away for preservation 
every number as it came to the office in which I ^vas 
serving my own apprenticeship — "The Watchman" 
office in Montpelier. It was to me the ideal news- 
jDaper, and it stirred in me that ambition of editorship 
Avhich springs up in the breast of every boy who learns 
to handle a composing-stick. Mr. Garrison did not 
neglect the purpose for which his paper was established. 
He supported Mr. Adams with zeal and ability, but he 
also discussed questions of reform which were quite 
distasteful to some of his readers. He was the cham- 
pion of temperance and peace, and Lundy's "Genius of 
Universal Emancipation," which was among his ex- 
changes, fanned his instinctive hatred of slavery to an 
intense heat. He wrote a petition for the abolition of 
slavery in the District of Cokimbia, which he sent to 
all the postiuasters in the State of Vermont, begging 
them to proctire signatures thereto. In that day post- 
masters enjoyed the privilege of receiving and sending 
letters free of postage, and Mr. Garrison succeeded in 
getting a large number of signatures to his petition, 
which caused quite a flutter in Congress. 

Mr. Lundy's jiaper was a small sheet, published but 
once a month. He spent the greater portion of his 
time in travelling from place to place procuring sub- 
scribers and endeavoring to excite an interest in the 
subject by conversation and lecturing. In some in- 
stances he carried the head-rules, column-rules and 
subscription book of his paper with him, and when he 
came to a town w^here he found a printing-office, he 
would stop long enough to print and mail a number of 
*' The Genius." He travelled for the most part on 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 27 

foot, carrying a heavy pack. He was a man of slight 
figure, though of a wiry temperament, and these exer- 
tions no doubt overtaxed his strength. In his boyhood 
he had seen coffles of Virginia shives going down the 
Ohio on their way to the far South, and his Quaker 
education had so intensified his hatred of the skive 
system that he counted no labor or sacrifice on his 
part too great to be endured in efi'orts for its suppres- 
sion. No apostle of the Christian faith ever exhil)ited 
a more ardent and unselfish devotion to his work than 
that which characterized the anti-slavery labors of this 
devoted but simple-minded Quaker, who obeyed the 
rule of his sect in "minding the light" of the Divine 
Spirit in his own soul. The torch of liberty which 
Mr. Garrison Avas holding aloft in the Green Moun- 
tains of Vermont naturally attracted his attention and 
kindled a new hope in his bosom. His heart yearned 
toward the young champion of freedom, and he longed 
to enlist him more fully in the cause — to make him, 
if it were possible, his coadjutor. After making the 
journey to Boston by stage, he Avalked, staff in hand 
and pack on back, in the winter snow, all the long and 
weary way from that city to Bennington. The meet- 
ing of these two men under the shadow of the Green 
Mountains, whose winds were ever the swift messen-j 
gers of freedom, may be regarded as the beginning of 
a movement tliat was destined, under God, to work 
the overthrow of American slavery. In this fresh 
mountain-spring originated the moral influences which, 
feeble at the first, became at length too mighty to bo 
resisted. The two men took sweet and solemn counsel 
together, and formed a resolution whose final results 
were seen in the deliverance of their country from 
slavery, and proclaimed in the exultant shouts of mil- 
lions of emancipated bondmen. The immediate result 
of the conference was that Mr. Garrison agreed to 
join Mr. Lundy in Baltimore. He went there accord- 



28 GAr.nisox and his times. 

inp^ly ill the fall of 1829, and took the pruicipal charge 
of ''The Genius of Univ^ersiil EiiKincipation," which 
Avas cnhirired, and from that time is^sued weekly. Mr. 
Liincly, it was understood, woukl contribute to the 
editorial cohnnns so far as he coukl while spending 
most of his time in lecturing and soliciting subscrip- 
tions. Never was a partnership entered upon foL- a 
holier purpose or in a more fraternal spirit. And yet, 
from the outset, there was between the two men a 
Avide dillercncc of opinion upon one fundamental point. 
Mr. Lundy's couvijtiou of the wrong and sinfulness 
of slavery was as deep and earnest as that of Mr. 
Gari'ison, but ho was an advocate of gradual emanci- 
pation, while his mind was preoccupied with schemes 
for colonizing the slaves as fast as they should be set 
free. Mr. Garrison, on the other hand, from the mo- 
ment of setting: himself to the serious consideration of 
the subject, saw clearly that gradualism was a delusion 
and a snare. Slavery was either right or wrong in 
principle, as well as in practice. If it was right even 
for an hour, it might be so for a year, for a century, 
or to the end of time ; and, therefore, any ell'ort for 
its abolition would be a war upon Divine Providence. 
If it was wrong, it was so upon the instant and in the 
nature of things ; and, therefore, there could be no 
excuse for its continuance for a day or even an hour. 
All this seemed as clear to him as any mathematical 
axiom, and as fundamental as the law of Divine jus- 
tice. His experience in the temperance cause had 
taught him that any movomcnt against a wrong custom 
or an unrighteous institution, if it was to be of much 
avail, must rest u])on some clearly defined moral prin- 
ciple which would commend itself instantly to the 
popular apprehension as a self-evident truth. 

It was tliis clear moral perception of Mr. Garrison, 
which, penetrating through all the subterfuges Mn 
which slavery had become intrenched, qualified him to 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 29 

lead tho groat movement to which he was henceforth to 
be devoted. It was only in being himself lifted up to 
this high plane of moral principle, that he could hope 
to draw his fellow-countrymen into sympathy with the 
movement, or even to arrest their attention for more 
than a fleeting hour. To spend his time in depicting 
tho cruelties of the slave system, while tacitly consent- 
ing to tho casuistry by which its existence f )r the timo 
was excused, would be such a process of self-stultitica- 
tion as inevitably to defeat tho object he had in view. 

Mr. Garrison explained his views to Mr. Lundy 
with the utmost frankness, and they talked the mtitter 
over without coming to an agreement. How were tho 
two men in tho face of this dilFerence to walk together? 
Mr. Lundy, in his sweet Quaker way, solved the diffi- 
culty. He said to Mr. Garrison : " Well, thee may put 
thy initials to thy articles, and I will put my initials to 
mine, and each will bear his ow^n burden." And so 
the two men struck hands, and "The Genius of Uni- 
versal Emancipation" was a paper with two voices, 
but'Onc was a voice of thunder, while the other sunk 
almost to a Avhisper. Up to this time the paper had 
mado little impression upon public s^'itimont. Its 
readers wept over the wrongs and cracUies uf slavery, 
but they thought that a sudden emancipation would ho 
attended with still worse evils ; and so, while they 
pitied the slave, they excused tho masters, and made 
no intelligent and well directed assault upon the sys- 
tem. The chief sin of slavery they assigned to its 
guilty originators ; tho duty of repentance and emai>- 
cipation was i)ostponed to an indetinite future. In -■ 
tho nature of things the holders of slaves could sec 
little ground for alarm in an anti-slavery sentiment so 
unintelligent and blind as this. But wlien Mr. Gtn-ri- 
son lifted up the standard of Immediate Emancipation, 
the cars of the slaveholders of Maryland and Virginia 
began to tingle. Under Mr. Lundy's exposures of the 



30 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

cruelties of the system they had indeed been annoyed 
and angry ; but the sight of that banner of Immediate 
EmancTpation tilled them with alarm for the safety of 
■ their system. For the first time they heard their right 
to keep even one slave in bondage for a single hour 
disputed. They were told that by every principle of 
justice and by the law of God it was their duty to 
" break every yoke and let the oppressed go free." 
All the excuses and subterfuges by which they had 
stilled the voice of conscience were swept away by an 
invincible logic, and they saw'themselves arraigned 
before the Nation as a body of oppressors. 

Baltimore was not only a slave-holding city, but one 
of the chief marts of the domestic traiBc in slaves. 
Slave-pens flaunted their signs in open day upon the 
principal streets, and their Avealthy owners moved in 
the best society and occupied pews in Christian 
churches. Vessels loaded with slaves, torn from their 
kindred and friends in Maryland and Virginia, were 
constantly departing for Mobile, Savannah, New 
Orleans and other "Southern ports ; and coffles of 
slaves, chained together, often moved in sad proces- 
sion, sometimes to mocking strains of music, through 
the streets out into the open country, on their way to 
the National Capital. The state of society in which 
scenes like these were tolerated need not be described. 
And yet it was in this seat of the domestic slave-trade 
that Lundy and Garrison set up their anti-slavery 
banner. Their friends, of course, were few and very 
timid, and ready to run under cover at the first alarm. 
Slavery was indeed acknowledged to be a bad system, 
leading to many gross Avrongs and cruelties. Even 
the slaveholders generally admitted as much as this. 
/ But emancipation was held even by the sincere oppo- 
; iients of slavery to be impracticable. The holder of 
i slaves was declared to be in the position of a man 
Lavino- a wolf by the ears — he must hold on to save 



GARRISON^ AND HTS TIMES. 31 

his own life. The slaves, if emancipated, would take 
revenge for past wrongs by cutting the throats of the 
masters, burning their houses and ravaging the land. 
They could not take care of themselves in a state of 
freedom, and in tact did not desire to be free. In 
this sort of sophistry and fiilsehood the common-sense 
and the conscience of the w^hole community were 
enmeshed. Emancipation in any shape, however 
gradual, was held to be an impossibility ; the very 
thought of. immediate emancipation the wildest fonat- 
ical dream -J and even the discussion of the subject was 
dreaded as a knell of doom to the Kepublic itself. 

We need not wonder, therefore, if '' The Genius of 
Univeisal Emancipation," which as a small monthly 
under Mr. Lundy's mild management had been barely 
tolerated, was now, in its enlarged form and issued 
every week, absolutely intolerable to the people of 
Baltimore and the surrounding region. The slave 
power, entrenched in church and state, began to growl 
like a wild beast at bay. The air was thick with tierce 
denunciation of "that madcap Garrison," and men in 
places of power and influence began to look each other 
in the face and* ask whereunto this new crusade against 
slavery would grow if some means of crushing it out 
were not speedily found. The slaveholders hardly 
dared then to make open war upon the freedom of the 
press, lest in doing so they should arouse an enemy 
too strong to be successfully resisted. They contented 
themselves, therefore, with exciting a popular clamor 
against the obnoxious paper, under which the more 
timid of its subscribers fell away. Mr. Garrison him- 
self says: "My doctrine of immediate emancipation 
so alarmed and excited the people everywhere, that 
where friend Lundy Avould get one new subscriber I 
would knock a dozen off. It was the old experiment 
of the frog in the well, that went up two feet and fell 
back three at every jump." Men who could see only 



32 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES.- 

half-truths and lacked courage to maintain even those 
^vith lirmness, said: "How foolish to throw away all 
chance of doing any good hy such ultraisni." Ikit 
Wisdom tiien, as always, was justitic<l of her children. 
The excitement by which the slaveholders hoped to 
extimruish the risins: tide of anti-slavery sentiment 
only served to fan it to an nitense flame, and more was 
done in a single month to prepare the way for the new 
crusade than could have been accomplished by years 
of timid, half-way etfort. It was no confuted or un- 
certain sound that the new tocsin rang out upon the 
air. It proclaimed slavery a sin and shame, and de- 
manded that every yoke should be broken, every 
fetter sundered, every captive set free. It startled 
and aroused thousands who would have been deaf to 
any more equivocal message, and kindled in the hearts 
of a noble few a fixed determination to cry aloud and 
spare not until slavery should be utterly abolished. 

It was not long, however, before the slaveholders of 
Baltimore found what they thought was an opportunity 
to crush out the new movement and the paper that 
represented it. Mr. Garrison, of course, did not i'ail 
to denounce the domestic slave-trade, of which I'alti- 
more was one of the principal marts. There came to 
that port a vessel owned by J\Ir. Francis 'J\)dd of 
Newburyport, Mr. Garrison's native place, and com- 
manded by one of her citizens, named Brown. The 
vessel took from Baltimore to New Orleans a cargo of 
eighty slaves. Here was a case of Northern complicity 
with the infamous traffic which stirred iMr. Garrison's 
deepest indignation, and he denounced the transaction 
as in no respect different in princij)lc from taking a 
cargo of human flesh on the coast of Africa and carry- 
ing it across the ocean to a market. The law denounced 
the foreign slave-trade as piracy ; the domestic slave- 
trade, inthe sight of God and according to every prin- 
ciple of justice, was no whit better, nor in any respect 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. OO 

different in quality. Mr. Todd, stung to the quick by 
Mr. Garrison's denunciations, brought suit against him 
for libel. A trial in a slaveholdiiig court and before 
a slaveholding jury could have but one result. Mr. 
Garrison was found guilty and lined in the sum of lilty 
dollars and costs of court. If he had been a rich man 
he probal)!}^ vv'ould not have consented to pay a single 
cent of the sum demanded of him. But he was too 
poor to pay, and so of necessity went to jail. There 
was no effort on the part of the patrons of "The Genius" 
to avert his fate. The excitement in Baltimore was 
almost as intense as that in Jerusalem when Jesus was 
led away to be crucified. " And they all forsook him 
and fled" was hardly more true in the one case than in 
the other of those who before had professed to be 
friendly to the cause and its champion. But the young 
Abolitionist was neither cast down nor dismayed, nor 
did he for a moment waver in his adherence to the 
principles he had avowed. He would make no apology, 
nor retract a single word. He knew that the ultimate 
effect of his imprisonment would be to arorise popular 
hostility to slavery, and promote the cause of emanci- 
pation. His undaunted spirit found utterance in two 
sonnets, which he inscribed with a pencil on the wails 
of his cell, as folloAvs : — 

THE GUILTLESS PRISONER. 

Prisoner! within these gloomy walls close pent, 

Guiltless of horrid crime or venal wrong — 
Bear nobly np against thy punishment, 

And in thy iunoceuco bo great and strong! 
Perchance thy fault was love to all mankind ; 

Thou didst oppose some vile, oppressive law ; 
Or strive all human fetters to unbind ; 

Or wouldst not bear the implements of war: — 
What then ? Dost thou so soon repent the deed? 

A martyr's crown is richer than u king's! 
Think it an honor with thy Lord to bleed, 

And glory midst iutcnsest sufferings! 
Though beat, imprisoned, put to open shame, 
Time shall embalm and magnify thy name! 



34 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 



FREEDOM OF THE MIND. 

Hiffli "^alla and huge the body may confine, 

And iron grates obstruct tho prisoner's gaze, 
And massive bolts may baffle his design, 

And vigilant keepers watch his devious ways : 
Yet scorns th' immortal mind this base control! 

No chains can bind it and no cell inclose: 
Swifter than light, it Hies from polo to pole. 

And, in a Hash, from earth to heaven it goes! 
It leaps from mount to mount— from vale to vale 

It wanders, plucking honeyed fruits and llowers; 
It visits home, to hear the fireside talc. 

Or in sweet converse pass the joyous hours: 
'Tis up before the sun, roaming afar, 
And, in its watches, wearies every star! 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 35 



II. 

Garrison's Imprisonment, and Its Effects at the North — The Release 
— Whittier, Clay, Tappau — Partnershii) of Lnndy and Garrison 
Dissolved — Tribute of the Latter to the Former— bounding of 
*' The Liberator" in Boston rather than in Washington — Garrison 
on a Lecturing Tour— Boston and the Cotton Traffic — Garrison 
Appeals in Vain to the Clergy — Dr. Lyman Beecher and Jere- 
miah Evarts — 'VThe Liberator" Born in a Dark Time — Purposes 
and Hopes of its Founder — Responsibility of the Church. 

The news of Mr. Garrison's imprisonment was re- 
ceived with fierce exultation at the South, while many 
Northern people openly said: "It is just what he 
deserves ; a man so reckless of the public welfare as to 
attempt to stir up an excitement on the slavery ques- 
tion ought to be brought up with a round turn." The 
expressions of mild indignation and sympathy that 
found utterance here and there were qualified by re- 
grets that a man engaged in so good a cause should be 
so wild and fanatical as to demand the instant emanci- 
pation of the slaves. " The Boston Courier," edited 
by that famous journalist, Joseph T. Buckingham, a 
man of singular independence of spirit, while not 
approving Mr. Garrison's views and methods, did yet 
appreciate his unselfish devotion to liberty and his 
willingness to sufler in a good cause. It published 
the sonnets which he inscribed on the walls of his cell, 
and, if my recollection is not at fault, printed one or 
two letters from him, written during his imprisonment. 
I was then in Boston, and full of a boy's enthusiasm 
for my hero, whom I had never seen, but had admired 
from the time of his connection with " The National 
Philanthropist." I was often a visitor at a Cornhill 
book-store, which was a place of resort for the ortho- 



36 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

dox clergymen of Boston, including my own p;istor, tho 
Ivcv. Dr. Lyman Bcccher. Newspapers, religious and 
secular, were on lile there for the aceonniK^dation of 
visitor.-?, and at times conversation was iVee upon topics 
of public interest. AA'ell do I remember the discus- 
sions in that circle of Mr. Garrison's imprisonment, 
and how few of ail those who took part in them ex- 
pressed more than a qualilied sympathy for the pris- 
oner, while most of them spoke of him as a visionary 
and a fanatic. Indeed, the whole community seemed 
to be far more deeply impressed by what they thought 
the fanaticism of the new champion of the slave than 
by the injustice and shame of imprisoning a man for a 
too ardent devotion to liberty. 

But the discussion thus excited in different parts of 
the country, though lacking in a true appreciation of 
the crisis, exerted a wholesome influence, and pre- 
pared the way for the growth of a more enlightened 
public sentiment. Expediency was a very popular 
word in those days, being held to embody the very 
highest wisdom in all things relating to slavery. Ev- 
erybody was ready to affirm that " slavery in the ab- 
stract " was something dreadful, the very acme, indeed, 
of human wickedness ; but for slavery in the United 
States every man's mouth was full of apologies. Texts 
of Scripture were cited for its defence as freely as if it 
had been the very corner-stone of the Christian faith, 
and the Constitution of the United States was appealed 
to as the very charter and bulwark of the hateful sys- 
tem. At the l)ottom of all the wretched casuistry by 
which men silenced the demands of justice in their 
hearts, was this one fact — the slaves w^ere black; or, 
to use the word more deeply freighted with atheistic 
contempt of human nature than any other, "niggers." 
If, by a miracle, the slaves had been made white, all 
excuses for shivery would have been overthrown, and 
the whole people would have risen up as one man to 



GARRISON AND IIlS TIMES. 37 

demand its instant abolition. Gradualism in that caso 
Avon Id have become intoleral)lc, and immediate eman- 
cipation the popuhn- ciy./jMi". Garrison's primary fault 
Avas his belief in the absolute humanity of the negro ; 
but this was just Avhat fitted him for the work to which 
he was called of God, and that'made his appeals to the 
consciences of men so powerful. 

The story of his release, after an imprisonment of 
forty-nine days, is of akiiost romantic interest. John 
G. Whittier, then unknown to fame, was the editor of 
''The New England Review," at Hartford, having suc- 
ceeded the late George D. Prentice, who was called by 
the friends of Henry Clay to become the editor of 
"The Louisville Daify eTournal." AVhittier and Gar- 
rison were not unknown to each other. When the lat- 
ter was editing "The Free Press," at Newburyport, 
the former had sent to him for publication several of 
his earliest poems, in which Mr. Garrison saw^ indica- 
tions of the genius now universally recognized. Edu- 
cated in all the best principles and traditions of Qua- 
kerism, there was even then burning in his heart that 
love of freedom which subsequently burst forth in im- 
passioned verse. He Avas deeply moved by the impris- 
onment of his friend, and naturally anxious to do what 
he could for his deliverance. He was a great admirer 
of Henry Clay, and cherished the hope that he might 
one day become President. Of course, he knew that 
Mr. Clay was a slaveholder, but he had faith in him as 
at heart a true friend of freedom, for he had observed 
bis efibrts to provide for the ultimate abolition of slaver}^ 
in Kentucky, and admired his eloquent defence of the 

Greeks in their struo:o:le for freedom. He wrote to the 

• • 'lilt* 
Kentucky statesman, asking his interposition in behalr 

of the "guiltless prisoner" at Baltimore, and begging 

him to open his prison-door by paying his fine. Mr. 

Clay responded promptly, making some preliminaiy 

inquiries which indicated a purpose to comply with 



38 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

Whitticr s request. This appears all the more credit- 
able to him ^vheii it is remembered that Mr. Garrison 
T\'as an opponent of the scheme of African colonization, 
of Avhich Mr. Chiy was then the foremost champion, 
and had sharply criticised some of his speeches on that 
sul^jcct. The Kentucky statesman, though he doubt- 
less had little patience with Mr. Garrison's doctrine of 
innncdiate emancipation, was not then wholly devoid 
of a noble though blind ambition to connect his name 
in some way with the deliverance of his country from 
slavery. If he had been told at that moment wdiat he 
woukf do, ere the lapse of many years, as a candidate 
for the Presidency, to promote the schemes of the Slave 
Power, he would doubtless have said : "Is thy servant 
a dog that he should do this thing ? " While Mr. Clay 
was probably getting ready to do what Mr. Whittier 
had recommended, another stepped in before him, paid 
the prisoner's fine and bill of costs, and thus opened 
his prison-door. It was Arthur Tappan, then a pros- 
perous merchant of New York, who seized the laurel 
that might otherwise have adorned the brow of the 
great Compromiser of Kentucky. Mr. Tappan was a 
reader of "The Genius of Universal Emancipation," 
and thus familiar with Mr. Garrison's views. Like 
Mr. Clay, he was a Colonizationist, and little inclined 
to sanction what was then regarded as ultraism in deal- 
ing with slavery. lie did, however, admire Mr. Gar- 
rison's independence and courage, his loyalty to God 
and his devotion to freedom, and was willing to take 
upon himself the odium of setting the "fanatic" at 
libert3^ 

The partnership between Mr. Lundy and Mr. Garri- 
son, which had been interrupted by the imprisonment 
of the latter, was now formally dissolved by mutual 
consent, and with the most fraternal feelings on both 
sides. "The Genius "fell back from a weekly to a 
monthly publication, under Mr. Lundy's exclusive con-. 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 39 

trol, while Mr. Garrison took measures to establish a 
journal of his own, in which, upon his sole responsi- 
bility, he could deal with the slavery question accord- 
ins; to his own convictions and his matured judgment. 
Never, however, did he cease to admire the indomit- 
able courage and devotion of Lundy, or forget to be 
grateful tohim as the man who first called his atten- 
tion to the wrongs and woes of slavery. It was not 
lono- afterward that his admiration and gratitude found 
utterance in the following lines : — 

TO BENJAMIN LUNDY. 

Self-tanglit, unaided, poor, reviled, contemned, 

Beset \vith enemies, by friends betrayed; 
As madman aud fanatic oft condemned, 

Yet in tby noble cause still undismayed! 
Leonidas could not tliy courage boast; 

Less numerous were his foes, his band more strong: 
Alone, unto a more than Persian host. 

Thou hast undauntedly given battle lon^.^ 
Kor shalt thou singly wage the unequal strife ; 

Unto thy aid, with spear and shield, I rush, 
Aud freely do I offer up my life, 

And bid my hearts-blood find a wound to gush! 
l^ew volunteers are trooping to the field; 
To die we are prepared, but not an inch to yield ! 

For several years Mr. Lundy went on in his old 
-way, exposing the wrongs of slavery, advocating grad- 
ual emancipation, and busying himself, with small suc- 
cess, in various schemes for colonizing the negroes, 
until the moral agitation created by the more uncom- 
promising elForts of Garrison drew him with thousands 
of others into its mighty wake. 

Mr. Garrison at first resolved to unfurl the standard 
of Immediate Emancipation at the National Capital, 
the seat of the domestic slave-trade and of those 
mighty politicial influences by means of which the 
Slave Power dominated over the Republic. In 
August, 1830, he issued the prospectus of a weekly 
paper to be published in AYashington, and called " The 



40 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

Liberator." The proposition Avas as natural as it was 
bold. Certainly it was most appropriate that a public 
journal intended to promote the deliverance of the 
nation from the crime and curse of human bondairo 
should bo published in Washington, and sent forth 
from that centre to every part of the United Sttites. 
It was then supposed that emancipation would find at 
least a few firm friends at the South, and that it would 
be possible to organize there a movement, which, 
appealing to the consciences of the slaveholders, 
would soon become formidable enough to work the 
overthrow of slavery. Such thoughts and expecta- 
tions, however, were founded in a mistaken estimate 
of the power as well as the purposes of the supporters 
of slavery, who were ready, if necessary for the 
defence of their system, to deny the freedom of s[)eech, 
and establish a reign of terror tliroughout the South. 
Having issued his prospectus, Mr. Garrison soon 
left Baltimore for the North, where he hoped to find 
sympathy and support among his old friends, and in 
the community generally. Of course, he had no capi- 
tal of his own on which to found the proposed paper. 
Ills only possessions were his indomitable courage and 
will, his ardent love of liberty, his faith in human 
nature, and his trust in God. But these were enough, 
and without a doubt of the goodness of his cause and 
of its early triumph, he went forth to battle in its 
behalf. During his imprisonment he had prepared 
several lectures on the subject of slavery and the 
delusive scheme of African colonization, and these he 
proposed to deliver in Northern cities and towns where 
he could gain a hearing. He first visited Philadelphia, 
where he was warmly received by the free people of 
color and by a few others, mostly Quakers ; but he was 
unable to make any wide or deep impression upon the 
citizens generally, for Philadelphia then, and for many 
years afterwards, was intensely Southern in her inter- 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 41 

csts and sympathies. His experiences in New York 
were hardly more favorable. Here, however, he met 
for the first time his benefactor, the man who had 
opened his prison-door, Mr. Arthur Tappan, who from 
that hour became his warm friend and supporter. 
The colored people of the city welcomed him as a 
hero, but the white people for the most part were 
hostile or apathetic. From New York he went on to 
New England — to Ncav Haven, Hartford, Providence, 
jjoston — where his reception was hardly more encour- 
aging than it had been in places further south. In 
view of such a state of pul)iic sentiment in the free 
States, he soon became convinced that Boston rather 
than Washington was the place where "The Liberator" 
should be established, and he changed his plans accord- 
ing v. To finht slavery at the South while the North 
was hostile would be like going into battle in an 
enemy's country with no base for re-enforcements or 
supplies. It would be in vain to appeal against 
slavery to Eichmond, Charleston and New Orleans, 
while Boston, New York and Philadelphia were apolo- 
gizing for the system ; in vain to seek the support of 
Southern statesmen while those of the North were 
hostile ; in vain to look for sympathy to the Southern 
churches while those of the North were either apathetic 
or lending an open support to the evil. Writing on 
this subject, he said : — 

*' During my recent tour f)r the purpose of exciting the 
minds of the people b}' a series of discourses on the subject 
of slavery, every place that I visited gave fresh evidence of 
the liict that a greater revolution in public sentiment was to 
be effected in the free States — and particularly in. New Eng- 
land — than at the South. I found contempt more bitter, 
opposition more active, detraction more relentless, preju lice 
more stubborn and apathy more frozen than among slave- 
owners themselves. Of course there were individual excep- 
tions to the contrary. This state of things afflicted, but did 



42 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

not dishcartoii mc. I determiuecl, at every hazard, to lift 
np the standard of emancipation in the eyes of the nation, 
within sight of Bunker Hill, and in the birth-place of Lib- 
erty." 

The resolution thus formed was an illustration of the 
hard common-sense for which he was ever afterwards 
distinizuished. He saw that Washington was too near 
the fulcrum to afford the requisite purchase — he must 
throw his weight upon the end of the lever. A battle 
must first be fou2:ht to establish the ris^ht to discuss 
the subject of slavery, and this contest, in the then 
inflammable condition of the Southern mind, could not 
be successfully waged upon slave soil. The slavehold- 
ers would be certain to take alarm from the establish- 
ment of an uncompromising anti-slavery journal at the 
National Capital, and to suppress it with a strong 
hand ; while the people of the North, in their indifier- 
cnce and blindness, would be almost sure to say, 
" Served him right ; if he had not been a mad-cap, he 
would no more have established his incendiary sheet 
on slave soil than he w^ould have walked into a powder 
magazine with a lighted torch." And yet the very 
people Avho would have said this, when they saw the 
first number of ''The Liberator" with a Boston imprint, 
exclaimed : " Coward ! Why does he not go to the 
South, instead of assailing slavery at this safe dis- 
tance? The people of New England are not slave- 
holders, and this fanatic has no right to pester us with 
this perplexing question." But Mr. Garrison's clear- 
sightedness enabled him to discei-n, even at that early 
day, that the influences which chiefly sustained slavery 
were supplied by the people of the North. He clearly 
saw that all eflbrts to redeem the South would be vain 
so long as the Northern people, through ecclesiastical, 
political, commercial and social channels, supplied the 
moral power by which the slave system was upheld. 

Boston was then the heart of New England, and 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 43 

spoke for it for more emphatically than she docs now. 
The cotton traffic had grown to gigantic proportions 
there, and by it men gained vast wealth. Cotton 
factories were springing up on every side, giving prof- 
itable employment to large numbers of men, women 
and children, and by opening extensive markets for 
agricultural produce, enabling the farmers to pay ofl 
their mortgages and redeem themselves from the shiv- 
ery of debt. The cotton traffic, in short, was regarded 
as the chief source of New England's prosperity, and 
the people were impatient of everything that seemed 
likely to disturb it. It was almost universally believed 
that cotton coukl be raised only by the labor of slaves, 
as no freeman would submit to the hardships necessa- 
rily involved in its culture. The appearance of "The 
Liberator " consequently set the whole cotton interest 
into a fever of excitement. Southern planters, filled 
with rage, wrote to their Northern custcmsrs protest- 
ing against such a paper, as calculated to excite the 
slaves to insurrection and deluge the South in blood. 
Northern merchants, yielding readily to such appeals 
to their cupidity and their fears, cried out against the 
anti-slavery movement as a wicked and inexcusable 
conspiracy. The press was their willing servant, and 
so to a great extent was the pulpit, especially in the 
cities and larger towns. These merchants occupied 
the most prominent pews in the churches, and contrib- 
uted largely and liberally for the support of the minis- 
try and for those missionary and other benevolent 
organizations that enjoyed the favor of the churches. 
The pulpit was thus sorely tempted to swerve from the 
laws of humanity and rectitude and become the apolo- 
gist if not the defender of slavery. When I say that 
it often yielded to this temptation, or, where it did 
not fully yield, was seduced into a scarcely less guilty 
silence, I set down naught in malice, but only record 
the truth of history for the instruction and warning of 



44 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

other ircncraLions. If this Irulh were hiclclcn, it would 
ho impossible to estimate ari;2:lit the eoiiragc, foresight 
and self-sacrificing spirit of Mr. Garrison and his asso- 
ciates. 

Dr. Lyman Beecher was then at the head of the 
Orthodox pulpit in Boston. The great controversy 
lictween Orthodoxy and Unitarian ism was drawing 
nigh to its culmination in the complete divorcement of 
the two parties. Dr. Channing, the leader on the Uni- 
tarian side, was a man of a gentle and humane spirit, 
not liking controversy, while Dr. Beecher was a born 
helHgerent. Mr. Garrison was conscientiously and 
strictly Orthodox, and therefore naturally inclined to 
seek support in the iirst instance from the Orthodox 
pulpit and church. When ho was in Boston in 1828, 
editing "The National Philanthropist," he became a 
warm admirer of Dr. Beecher, partly on account of his 
attitude on the Temperance question, but still more 
because of his great powers as a preacher, and, natu- 
rally enough, he Avas the Iirst minister to whom Mr. 
Garrison appealed for support, lie was bitterly disap- 
pointed in iinding him indifierent to the appeal. "I 
have too many irons in the lire already," said the Doc- 
tor. "Then," said Mr. Garrison, solemnly, "3'ou had 
better let all your irons burn than neglect your duty 
to the slave." The Doctor, like almost all the clergy- 
men of that day, Avas a colonizationist, believing that 
freedom to the slaves with liberty to remain in tho 
United States would bo a curse ; they must be sent to 
Africa, whence their fathers had been stolen, and carry 
to that country tho Christianity of their masters. To 
him, therefore, Mr. Garrison's doctrine of immediato 
emancipation upon American soil was repulsive, and ho 
told him so. ''Your zeal," ho said, "is ecnnmendablc ; 
but you are misguided. If you will give up your 
fanatical notions and bo guided by us (tho clergy) wo 
will make you tho Wilberforcc of America." 



GAPtFtlSON AND HIS TIMES. 45 

Mr. Garrison had learned the doetrinc of immcdiat- 
hm Ironi Dr. Beecher himself. The very keynote of 
tlie revivals of that day, in vhich tlie Doetor took so 
prominent a part, vras the duty of every sinner to 
repent instantly and give his heart to Christ; l)iit the 
men who were most eloquent in urging this doetrino 
in its applieation to the sin of unbelief were prompt to 
deny it in its application to the sin of slavery. Sin in 
general was something for which there could bo no 
apology or excuse, but the particular sin of treating 
men as chattels and compelling them to work w'ithout 
wages could only be put away, if at all, by a process 
requiring whole generations for its consummation ! 
Such was the moral blindness of the ti^^^ — ^^ blind- 
ness not of the nudtitudc alone, but of the professed 
expounders of the will of God. 

jNIr. Garrison left Dr. Beecher with a disappointed 
and saddened heart, for he had counted with confidence 
upon his sympathy and support. He had sat under 
his preaching with protit and delight, and he longed 
to hear his eloquent voice pleading the cause of the 
imbruted slave. Disappointed in this, to w'hom should 
he next turn? He resolved to visit other clergymen 
of the city and vicinity and seek their co-operation. 
But, w^ith hardly an exception, he found them unsym- 
pathetic. Dr. Beecher, in speaking for himself, had 
unconsciously spoken for the rest. Truth had indeed 
fallen in the street, and Equity could not enter. Ho 
resolved to go and see Jeremiah Evarts, Secretary of 
the American Board of Connnissioners for Foreign 
Missions, who had been writing eloquently in behalf 
of the Indians. Surely, he said to himself, I shall 
find a helper in him. But no ; Mr. Evarts, with all 
his s^'mpathy for the outraged Indians, would not 
speak or write a word in behalf of the slave, or coun- 
tenance any effort for his emancipation ; and Mr. Gar- 
rison learned, to his unspeakable disgust, that not a 



46 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

few of the Chcrokecs and Cboctaws, for whom Mr. 
Evarts was pleading so eloquently, were themselves 
the owners of negro slaves ! 

It Avas in the midst of such darkness, discourage- 
ment and doubt that "The Liberator" was born — ])orn 
to light slavery to the death, and to record its final 
extinction. Started without so much as a single dol- 
lar of capital, or even one subscriber, it was sustained 
for thirty-five years by such pluck and endnrance, and 
such faith in God as have been but rarely witnessed in 
the history of mankind. In the character of its editor 
it had a moral capital that no fire of persecution could 
destroy or impair, and no flood of calunmy overwhelm. 
It fought for what is most of all fundamental in the 
religion of Christ, for that without which it were in- 
deed a mockery and a sham. God and Christ were 
in the movement, and the gates of hell, though forti- 
fied and barricaded by traitor hands, could not prevail 
against it. The hour had struck, and the man whom 
God had commissioned to preach deliverance to the 
captives and the opening of the prison to them that 
w^ere bound had come. It was in vain now that men 
cried peace when there was no peace. The pulpit 
might prostitute itself to the defence of slavery : states- 
men might plead in its behalf the sacredness ol the 
Constitutional compacts and compromises ; the press 
might denounce as fanatical the plea for emancipation, 
and mobs might howl upon the track of the Abolition- 
ists. All in vain ! for it was determined in the Divine 
counsel that American slavery should be overthrown — 
IDcaceably, if the nation were so minded, but otherwise 
in blood ! This was the dread alternative presented to 
the American people. It was Mr. Garrison's hope that 
the power of Christianity in the land was mighty enough 
to accomplish the great work. The delusions of the 
hour, he thought, would pass away, the pulpit would 
awake to its duty, the churches — a mighty and invinci- 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 47 

ble host — would corac up to the help of the Lord 
as^ainst the great iniquity, and the statesmen of tho 
land would show themselves men worthy of such a cri- 
sis. The slaveholders themselves, their lirst maduess 
over, would listen to the voice of reason, and come 
speedily to see that their own safety and prosperity 
required that they should nndo the heavy burdens and 
let the oppressed go free. With what earnestness of 
conviction and what eloquence of speech did he plead 
the promises of God to a nation that should put away 
its sin! "Loose the bands of wickedness, undo the 
heavy burdens, let the oppressed go free, break every 
yoke, hide not thyself from thine own flesh. Then 
shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine 
health shall spring forth speedily ; thy righteousness 
shall go before thee, the glory of the Lord shall be thy 
rereward, and thy darkness be as the noonday. And 
the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy 
soul in drought, and make fat thy bones. Thou shalt 
be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, 
whose waters fail not. They that shall be of thee shall 
build the old Avaste places. Thou shalt raise up the 
foundations of many generations ; and thou shalt be 
called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of paths 
to dwell in. Thou shalt delight thj^self in the Lord, 
and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of 
the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy 
father; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." 
Equally earnest and equally eloquent was he in depict- 
ing the calamities which, in the order of Divine Provi- 
dence, would come upon the nation if it should persist 
in its sin : "Therefore, thus saith the Lord : Ye have 
not hearkened unto me, in proclaiming liberty, every 
one to his brother and every one to his neighbor ; be- 
hold, I proclaim a liberty for you, saith the Lord, to 
the sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine." 
That a nation, the great body of wdiose people be- 



48 GARPtlSOX AND HIS TIMES. 

licvcd in the plenary inspiration of the Bible, and that 
its contents were desi2rned for instruction in ri^'hteons- 
ness as well as for admonition and warnini^: to the 
Viholc human race till time ; ':ould be no more, could 
listen unmoved to passagco like these from the Hebrew 
prophets, so exactly descriptive of its condition and its 
perils, would seem incredible if wc did not remember 
that the official and trusted expositors of the time taught 
it to set them at naught, and tilled its ears with apolo- 
gies for slaver}^ woven of texts from the same Book — ■ 
as Whittier says : 

^'Tortnrini; the pages of tlio liallowerl Bible 
To sanctiou robbery, aud crime autl blood." 

Stuart at Andover, Alexander at Princeton, Fisk at 
Wilbraham, and others who in high places were train- 
iiii^ a new a'eneration of ministers, were found, not 
lon2: afterwards, Aveavino' inii'cnious an^^uments from 
the Scriptures to prove that slaveholding was compat- 
ible with the Golden Rule, and that the plea for imme- 
diate emancipation was the wildest fanaticism. The 
ready plea of the apologist for slavery was, that excite- 
ment upon the subject would inevitabl}^ quench the 
inlluences of the Divine Spirit and put an end to the 
revivals of religion, which were declared to be the 
great instrumentality for the conversion of the world. 
The voices of thousands who miHit otherwise have 
borne a testimony against slavery were hushed to si- 
lence by this specious plea. A small remnant was 
indeed "faithful among the faithless found," but they 
fell under popular reproach, and in some instances 
were sul)ject to persecution among false brethren. 

If we may accept for truth the declaration of the 
Kev. Albert Barnes, "that there was no power out of 
the church that would sustain slavery an hour if it 
were not sustained in it," then it must be admitted 
that the church was responsible for the lailure to abol- 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 49 

isli the system by moral power, and for all the blood 
spilled and treasure lost in the war of the Kebellion ! 
There was no pretence then that Mr. Garrison was an 
infidel. That plea was invented years afterward, when 
the churches found it necessary to offer some plausible 
excuse for their delinquency ; and it was no truer then 
than it would have been if ofiered at first. It was in 
the power of the churches, if they had had any heart 
for the work, to make the movement their own, to 
lead and guide it from its beginning to its consumma- 
tion. This, indeed, was what Mr. Garrison desired 
and expected. He coveted not for himself the honors 
of leadership, but would have been content to serve 
the cause inconspicuously, if the men in power and 
influence had been persuaded to take it up. He was 
forced to the front when he would gladly have taken 
his place in the ranks. 



50 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 



III. 

The First Volume of "The Liberator;" Its Size and Appearance — 
Scenes in the Office — Distinj^uishcd Visitors — Mr. Garrison's 
Alleged "Bitterness" — Alarm of the Slaveholders — Incitements 
to Kidnappers — luditferenco at the North — The Nat Turner 
Insurrection — Appeal of "The National Intelligencer" to the 
North — Mr. Garrison's Defence. 

Lying open before me as I write is the first volume 
of "The Liberator," beginning and ending with the 
year 183L It was small for that day, but how much 
more diminutive it looks in comparison with the weekly 
journals of the present time ! It is a folio of four pages. 
The page is fourteen inches in length by nine and three- 
tenths in width. The title at first was in bold-face 
black-letter, which gave place, at the end of four 
months, to an engraved head, with a "pictorial repre- 
sentation" of an auction, at which "slaves, horses and 
other cattle" are seen offered for sale, and of a whip- 
ping-post, at which a slave is receiving punishment. 
In the background is seen the Capitol of Virginia, with 
a flag, inscribed with the word "Liberty," floating over 
the dome. This picture of a scene familiar to cveiy 
Southern eye was regarded as even worse than Mr. 
Garrison's "harsh language." At the South it was de- 
nounced as incendiary, while influential journals at the 
North declared that it was abominal)le thus to outrage 
the feelings of "our Southern brethren" and incite the 
slaves to insurrection ! Then, as now, the champions 
of "conciliation" thought it unpatriotic to drag into 
light the cruelties practised upon the negroes. For 
the sake of harmony, and to avert a dissolution of the 
Union, the disagreeable facts of slavery ought to be 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 51 

concealed. The Abolitionists were madmen and fools, 
and utterly devoid of "fraternal feeling" in making 
such a fuss about the Southern negi-oes, who were the 
most contented body of laborers in the world, and 
floircred only as they deserved to be for their innate 
laziness and insolence. But Mr. Garrison took little 
heed of these objurgations. The spirit of his chosen 
motto, "Oar Country is the World, our Countrymen 
are all Mankind," pervaded and filled his heart, lifting 
him above the blind and selfish expediency of the time. 
As I turn over the pages of this volume, what a 
flood of memories of that early day stirs my heart ! It 
was indeed, as Lowell describes it, "the day of small 
thino-s," when "one straightforward conscience" was 
"put in pawn to win a world." How vividly do I re- 
member "that small chamber, dark, unfnrnitured and 
mean," which after the first three weeks became the 
ofiice of "The Liberator," and the only domicile of its 
brave editor and his associate. They had announced 
their determination to publish their paper as long as 
they could do so by living on bread and water ; and 
so they made their bed on the office floor, and lived 
for a year or more on such food as they were able to 
procure at a neighboring bakery. More than once did 
I partake with them of their humble fare, Mr. Garri- 
son doing the honors of the table with a grace worthy 
of a richer feast, and a cheerfulness that nothing could 
disturb. The office was in the third story of the build- 
ing then known as Merchants' Hall. Everything about 
it had an aspect of slovenly decay, and Harrison Gray 
Otis well characterized it as "an obscure hole." 

" Yet there the freedom of a race began." 

The dingy walls ; the small windows, bespattered with 
printer's^ ink ; the press standing in one corner ; the 
composing stands opposite ; the long editorial and 
mailing table, covered with newspapers; the bed of 



52 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

the editor and publisher on tlie floor ; all these make 
a picture never to be forgotten. I was a fiequent vis- 
itor from the first, but in the autumn I removed the 
ofiice of my own paper, "The Christian Soldier," into 
an adjoining room, and for a year and a half thereafter 
printed it on "The Liberator" press. This brought me 
into still closer relations with Mr. Garrison, making 
me familiar with the daily current of his life, and fix- 
ing and deepening my interest in the anti-slavery move- 
ment. His courage, enthusiasm and devotion, so unlike 
anything I had ever witnessed before, awakened my 
admiration, and gave me a new conception of the maj- 
esty and power of a single human life. I do not lightly 
estimate the value of what the world calls an educa- 
tion, but I think Mr. Garrison did more and better for 
me than any college or theological seminary could have 
done. The quickening, inspiring power of his conver- 
sation exceeded that of any other man I have ever 
known. His heart was all aflame with enthusiasm for 
his cause, but never for a moment was his calm judg- 
ment overcome by heat. A faith so absolute in the 
sacredness and power of moral principles, a trust in 
God so firm and immovable as his, I have never seen 
exhibited by any other man. Never for an instant did 
he doubt the success of the movement to which, upon 
his knees, w^ith his Bible open before him, he had con- 
secrated his life. Whoever else might yield to dis- 
couragement, he never. Though the Southern press 
denounced him as a murderer and a cut-throat, and 
every mail from that quarter brought him threats of 
assassination if he did not desist from his work, he 
never for one moment wavered in his purpose or indi- 
cated the slightest personal fear. How often did I 
hear him speak in tenderest pity of the deluded men 
who stood ready to take his life at the first opportu- 
nity. Not a word of vindicliveness or even of bitter- 
ness ever escaped his lips, and he would far sooner 



GAREISON AND HIS TIMES. 53 

have laid clown his own life than taken that of an 
enemy. 

That "obscure hole" was the scene of many a mem- 
orable talk. Among those who came to confer with 
the editor I remember Samuel J. May, who combined 
the courage of Paul with the lovingness of John, and 
who w^as ever afterward a conspicuous figure in the 
anti-slavery host; Ellis Gray Loring, then a rising 
young lawyer, with a clear head and a sound con- 
science, whose death in the prime of his powers left a 
vacancy that could not be filled ; Samuel E. Sewall, of 
an honored Massachusetts family, a man fitted by his 
legal attainments and his judicial spirit for a high pkce 
on the bench, and who yet lives in a green old age to 
mourn the loss of the founder of "The Liberator" ; 
David Lee Child, the bold editor and the faithful cham- 
pion of the oppressed of every nation and clime ; John 
G. AVhittier, then almost unknown to fame, but whose 
flashing eye and intrepid mien foretold the songs of 
freedom with which he afterward thrilled and stirred 
the hearts of his countrymen; Joshua Coffin, the anti- 
quarian, Whittier's old schoolmaster, and the sul)ject 
of one of his characteristic lays ; Arnold BufFum, the 
Quaker hatter, lately returned from England, where 
he had caught the spirit of Clarkson, AVilberforce, 
O'Connell and Buxton, and thus prepared himself to 
greet the rising Liberator of America ; Moses Thach- 
er, an Orthodox clerg3'man, one of the first of the pro- 
fession to welcome the call for immediate emancipation ; 
and Amos A. Phelps, then pastor of the Congregational 
church in Pine Street, whose labors in the cause as 
speaker and writer were for several years invaluable. 
Mr. Garrison was never too busy with his pen or his 
composing-stick to talk with those who cared enough 
for the cause to seek his presence. He was ever ready 
to answer inquiries for information, or to explain his 
principles, purposes and plans, and it was seldom that 



54 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

any one who conversed with hun for ten minutes failed 
to be deeply and favorably impressed. At this time 
he would have thought it impossible to address an audi- 
ence for the space of one minute without first commit- 
tins: his remarks to writinof; but as a talker he was 
fluent, copious and strong, never hesitating for a word, 
or failing to hit the nail squarely upon the head. It 
was impossible to hear him and not be moved. ^lany 
an opponent who thought to overcome him in argument 
found himself, after a brief encounter, hors de combat, 
and was oblisfed to retire with a broken lance. If an 
antagonist had a conscience. Garrison was sure to en- 
list it on his side. In a few simple, w^ell-chosen words 
he cut his way through every web of sophistry, how- 
ever cunningly woven, making slavery look the hide- 
ous thing that it is, and maintaining the humanity of 
the negro with a cogency of reasoning that nothing 
could resist. 

The language of Mr. Garrison has been called bitter 
by those whose sympathies for the slaveholders and 
their apologists were superior to their sense of the sin 
of slavery and their regard for the equal rights of the 
negro. His bitterness, however, was only the inevita- 
ble bitterness of truth to men whose lives are stained 
by'flagrant sin. His descriptions of slavery and of the 
sin of slaveholding were simply and scientitically accu- 
rate, as if he had said a spade is a spade, a brick is a 
brick, a lie is a lie. Not a word was added from 
malice or the love of severity, or w^ith the purpose of 
making men angry. He wounded only to heal. He 
knew that the people of the United States could not be 
roused to the work of abolishing slavery by smooth 
phrases, in which the truth was rather concealed than 
expressed. He knew that the consciences of slave- 
holders could be reached by no half-truths, and that 
the torpid conscience of the North demanded not seda- 
tives but a probe. In all this his judgment was as 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 55 

cool and accurate as that of a mathematician in calcu- 
lating the contents of the cube or the square. Some 
of his timid friends thought the name of "The Libera- 
tor" sounded harsh and would inevitably create a 
prejudice against the movement. One of these sug- 
gested that "The Safety-Lamp" would be a better 
name, it sounded so gentle ! But if he had been 
capable of taking this advice he would have been 
wholly unfitted for his work. "I will be," he said, 
"as harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as justice. 
. I am in earnest ; I will not equivocate ; I 
will not excuse ; I will not retreat a single inch ; and 
I wiL-L BE HEARD." . . "Li attacking the systcm of 
slavery, I clearly foresaw all that has happened to me. 
I knew, at the commencement, that my motives would 
be impeached, my warnings ridiculed, my person per- 
secuted, my sanity doubted, my life jeopardized ; but 
the clank of the prisoner's chains broke upon my ear 
— it entered deeply into my soul — I looked up to 
Heaven for strength to sustain me in the perilous work 
of emancipation, and my resolution was taken." The 
Hebrew prophets and Jesus and his apostles were his 
models ; he would be like them even if he shared their 
fate. Those who imasfine that he used lansruaofe 

CD O ~ 

loosely, carelessly, recklessly, wholly mistake his char- 
acter. He weighed his words as exactly and scrupu- 
lously as the pharmaceutist weighs the constituents of 
the physician's prescription, and those who read them 
now that slavery is dead will find in them no other 
bitterness than that which was necessarily involved in 
their truth and justice. The spirit that dictated them 
was kindred to that of Him who, while fearlessly 
denouncing the leaders of the Jewish people for their 
crimes, could yet exclaim : "O, Jerusalem, Jerusalem ! 
thou that killest the prophets and stonest them that 
are sent unto thee ! How oft would I have "fathered 
you as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, 



56 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

but ye would not." The Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, 
in his sermon on the deiith of Mr. Garrison, repeats 
this charge of bitterness, but without citing a word oi 
proof. He insists that, unlike Jesus and the prophets, 
he was destitute of the spirit of love for those whon) 
he denounced. It is very easy, at this distance from 
the times in which the prophets and Jesus respectively 
lived, to talk of their loving spirit as qualifying their 
denunciations ; but if Mr. Beecher had been the son ol 
one of that band of Pharisees whom Jesus indiscrimi- 
nately denounced as a "generation of vipers" and 
"hypocrites," who "devoured widows' houses, and 
for a pretence made long prayers," and been called 
upon after the crucifixion to deliver a discourse upon 
his life and character, would he have been able to find 
the soul of love in those denunciations? I doubt it; 
and yet it is there, as it is also in the epithets which 
Garrison applied to slavery and to slaveholders. Can 
it for a moment be imagined that there was anything 
in the character or conduct of the Scribes and Phari- 
sees more fitted to excite the indisfuation of a noble 
mind, and to call for and justify the use of strong epi- 
thets, than was seen in the example of the men who, 
with the Declaration of Independence in one hand and 
the Bible in the other, and the name of the blessed 
Christ on their lips, held their fellow-beings in a stati; 
of slavery which John Wesley, pronounced "the vilest 
that ever saw the sun"? AVhy, then, should men who 
are able to find the fruits of love in the terrible denun- 
ciations that fell from the lips of Jesus, be so ready to 
charge Mr. Garrison with bitterness? Time has vin- 
dicated the Master, and it will yet vindicate His faith- 
ful disciple. 

The men who are most prone to condemn as bitter 
those who in this asje of the world are called to wai^e 
earnest war against iniquity in high places, arc not so 
blind as to the reasonableness of severe denunciations, 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 57 

nor so unwilling to apologize for them, as is often sup- 
posed. I was forcibly struck, a short time since, with 
a passage which I found in the Rev. Dr. W. T. G. 
Shedd's address at the opening of the term in the 
Union Theological Seminary. Dr. Shedd is a con- 
servative of the conservatives, who stood carefully 
aloof from Abolitionism, and it is worth while to note 
the philosophical ground upon wdiich such a man 
apologizes for the use of "hard language." "The in- 
flexible earnestness of the lover of truth," says the 
learned Professor, "explains that phraseology, more 
common in the century of the Reformation than now, 
which is often cited in proof of the bitterness and 
malignity of the theologian. Luther, and even the 
mild Melanchthon, use Avords that are like drawn 
swords, when speaking of the teachers of certain ten- 
ets. Milton describes Salmasius in phraseology still 
more vehement than that of the theologian. It is an 
error to assume that in these instances, the energy of 
the epithets is aimed at the persons. It is aimed at 
their opinions. It is like the damnatory clause in the 
Athanasian Creed ; the real meaning of which is that 
the denial of the deity of Jesus Christ, and of the 
trinity of the Divine Being, is what an inspired apos- 
tle denominates a ' damnable heresy,' a fatal error. 
That creed, in its damnatory clause, does not under- 
take to decide the state of the heart, and actually pro- 
nounce, in anticipation, the final judgment of God 
respecting a particular individual ; because the latitu- 
dinarian person may be better than his creed, and the 
orthodox person may be worse than his. But leaving 
the person and the state of the heart to the judgment 
of God, and having reference only to a tenet or a doc- 
trine, both the creed and the theologian are authorized 
to say that if the dogma of the deity of Christ is a 
saving ti'uth, then the dogma that He is only a (crea- 
ture is a fatal error. For this is only to say that if 



58 GAERISON AND IIIS TIMES. 

the sum of two numbers is four, it cannot be six. 
Eespecti ng the unyielding earnestness of orthodoxy, 
and the plain utterance which it sometimes necessi- 
tates, the words of Lord Bacon are in point: 'Bitter 
and earnest writing must not hastily be condemned ; 
for men cannot contend coldly and without affection 
about things which they hold dear and precious. A 
politic man may write from his brain, without touch 
and sense of his heart, as in a speculation that a[)i)er- 
taineth not unto him ; but a feeling Christian will ex- 
press in his words a character of zeal, and of love.' " 

It seems to come to this : that an Orthodox theolo- 
gian, " Avhen speaking of the teachers of certain ten- 
ets," will be authorized, by his "inflexible earnestness" 
as "a lover of truth," to "use words that are drawn 
swords " ; while the men who are called of God to light 
such a system of Avickedness as American slavery was, 
and whose souls are on fire with love of freedom, and 
with sympathy for the oppressed and wronged, must 
confine themselves to the use of soft phrases, on ])ain 
of being denounced from Christian pulpits as bitter. 
A mistaken theory as to the nature and ofiices of Christ 
is worse than to sell him at auction in the persons of 
those whom he calls his brethren. "Damnatory 
clauses " and " words that are like drawn swords " are 
wholesome for men who have a twist in their theology, 
but wholly inappropriate to the perpetrators of great 
crimes and their defenders and apologists ! 

The simple truth is, that this charge of bitterness has 
been brought against every reformer who ever did 
anything eflectually for the redemption of the world 
from any system of iniquity, and it never had less foun- 
dation in truth than in the case of Mr. Garrison. Dr. 
Channing has been accounted a mild man, but he 
found justilication for the "harsh language" of Milton 
in the character ui' the times in which he wrote, and in 
the nature of the evils with which he was forced to 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 59 

contend ; and in vindicating the great champion of 
English liberty he has made an unanswerable defence 
of the great advocate of negro emancipation : — 

"Great evils were struggling for perpetuity, and could 
only be broken down by great power. IMilton felt that 
Interests of great moment were at stake ; and who will 
blame him for binding himself to them with the whole energy 
of his great mind, and for defending them with fervor and 
vehemence? We must not mistake Christian benevolence, 
as if it had but one voice — that of soft entreat}'. It 
can speak in awful and piercing tones. There is constantly 
going on in our world a conflict between good and evil. . . 
5len gifted with great power of thought and loftiness of sen- 
timent are especiall}' summoned to the conflict. . . They 
must speak with an indignant energy, and the}' ought not to 
be measured by the standard of ordinary minds in ordinary 
times. Men of natural softness and timidity, of a sincere 
but effeminate virtue, will be apt to look on these bolder, 
hardier spirits as violent, perturbed and uncharitable ; and 
the charge will not be wholly groundless. But that deep 
feeling of evils which is necessar}' to eff'ectual conflict with 
them, and which marks God's most powerful messengers to 
mankind, cannot breathe ilself in soi't and tender accents. 
The deeply moved soul will speak strongl}', and ought to 
speak so as to move and shake nations." 

Some of the modern talkers about reforming the 
world by love — l)y which they mean the reduction to 
moral Habbiness of every testimony against great sys- 
tems of iniquity — would do well to study the life of 
John jNIilton. 

That the slaveholders were seriously alarmed by the 
appearance of " The Liberator " was manifest by the 
elibrts they made to prevent its circulation and frighten 
its intrepid editor from the field. The Vigilance 
Association of Columbia, S. C, composed, according 
to "The Charleston ^lercur}-," of "gentlemen of the 
first respectability," on the 4th of October, 1831, 
" oflered a reward of $1,500 for the apprehension and 



60 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

prosecution to conviction of any white person who 
mi«:ht bo detected in distributinii: or circulatins^ * The 
Liberator,' or any other publications of a seditious 
tendency." The authorities of Georgetown, D. C, 
enacted a law making it penal for any free person of 
color to take from the post-office " the paper pul)lished 
in Boston, called 'The Liberator.'" In Raleigh, N. 
C, a grand jury found a true bill against the editor 
and the publisher, evidently in the hope of finding a 
way to bring them to that State for trial. A writer in 
that grave and dignified old paper, "The National 
Intelligencer," published in AVashington, proposed 
that Mr. Garrison should be indicted and tried in Vir- 
ginia, and that, after conviction, a demand for his 
surrender should be made upon the Governor of Mas- 
sachusetts. Mr. Ilayne of South Carolina, the cham- 
pion of nullification, having received by mail a copy of 
"The Liberator," Avrote to the Hon. Harrison Gray 
Otis, Mayor of Boston, asking to be informed who 
sent it ; and Mr. Otis, desiring to oblige his distin- 
guished friend, sent a deputy to ^Ir. Garrison, hoping 
to extract from him a confession that he was the guilty 
man ! Mr. Garrison, with the true Yankee instinct, 
answered the interrogatory of Mr. Otis's agent by 
propounding another, viz. : " By what authority does 
the Hon. Ivobert Y. Hayne ask me such question?" 
Thus Avere the great South Carolinian and his Northern 
tool foiled in their attempt to make the anti- slavery 
editor criminate himself and lay the foundation for a 
requisition for his person upon the Governor of the 
old Commonwealth. But it was left to the State of 
Georgia to cap the climax of malignant folly in the 
passage of a law ofiering $5,000 "to be paid by the 
Governor to any person or persons arresting and 
bringing to trial, under the laws of the State, and 
prosecuting to conviction, the editor or publisher of 
'The Liberator,' or any other person who shall utter, 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. " 61 

publish or circulate said paper in Georgia." Tiiis was 
nothing less than a bribe to any ruffian who might 
choose on any dark night to go to the office of Mr. 
Garrison and seize and convey him to a Southern ves- 
sel lying at the wharf not fur distant. In response to 
this threat, Mr. Garrison said: "Know this, ye pa- 
trons of kidnappers, that we despise your threats as 
much as we deplore your infatuation ; nay, more — 
know that a hundred men stand ready to fill our place 
as soon as it is made vacant by violence. *The Liber- 
ator' shall yet live — live to warn j^ou of your danger 
and guilt — live to plead for the perishing slaves — 
live to hail the day of universal emancipation. For 
every hair of our head which you touch, there shall 
spring up an asserter of the rights of your bondsmen, 
and an upbraider of your crimes." 

And how were these menaces and threats received 
at the Xorth? Not l)y any means Avith the indignation 
they were fitted to excite in the breasts of freemen 
jealous for the liberty of the press ; but generally with 
cool indifterence, if not with positive sympathy. The 
Northern press made constant obeisance to "Kiii<>- Cot- 
ton," and dared do no more than to suggest, with 
whispered humbleness, that perhaps it might be carry- 
ing things a little too far to kidnap the miserable 
fanatic who was disturbing the peace of the South ! 
The newspapers that dared to speak in terms of honest 
indignation of these attempts to destroy the freedom 
of the press were those of smallest circulation, and 
might be counted on one's fingers. The moral stupor 
that resl:ed upon the press and the people of the North 
at that time seems utterly- incredible now. 

The Southampton (Va.) insurrection of slaves, led 
by Nat Turner, occurred in the summer of 1831, when 
"The Liberator" was only a few months old. Turner 
was himself a slave, and he persuaded his deluded fol- 
lowers that he was a prophet sent by God to lead them 



62 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 



out of the liousG^of bondage. There was never the 
slightest reason to suppose that he had ever seen so 
much as a single copy of "The Liberator," and if he had 
he would have found in it nothhig to encourage his 
murderous project, but, on the contrary, much to dis- 
suade him therefrom. For Mr. Garrison from the 
very start avowed his opposition to war and violence 
under all circumstances. In the very first number of 
bis paper he apostrophized the slaves in these memor- 
able words : — 

"Not "by the sword shall your deliverance he ; 

Not by the shedding of your masters' blood; 
Not by rebelliou, or foul treachery, 

Upspringiug suddenly, like swelling flood : 

Kevenge and rapine ne'er did bring forth good. 
God's time is best ! nor will it long delay : 

E'en now your barren cause begins to bud, 
And glorious shall the fruit be ! Watch and pray. 
For, lo ! the kindling dawn, that ushers in the day ! " 

But, in spite of all such protestations, and notwith- 
standing the notorious fiict that Mr. Garrison was a 
non-resistant, the press at the North, as well as at the 
South, insisted that he was responsible for the Nat 
Turner insurrection, Avith all its cruehies and horrors. 
Governor Floyd, in his message to the Virginia Legis- 
lature, said there was too much cause to suspect that 
the plans of the insurrection had been "designed and 
matured by unrestrained fanatics in some of the neigh- 
])oring States." That this was an allusion to Mr. Gar- 
rison and his associates was universally understood at 
the time. Northern newspapers found it hard to be- 
lieve that a body of "contented laborers" like the Vir- 
ginia slaves could revolt a<rainst the authoritv of their 
kind masters unless they were invited to do so by mis- 
chievous fanatics ; and who but Garrison could be the 
guilty cause of such madness? There were moments 
when it seemed as if the misguided public opinion of 
the hour would demand the suppression of " The Lib- 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 63 

erator," and it is not easy now to see Yvhat it vras, 
except the restraining interposition of Providence, that 
prevented the people in their madness from doing all 
that the slaveholders desired. Few newspapers of that 
day exerted an iniiuence so powerful as that of "The 
National Intelligencer," in which the respectability, 
learning, statesmanship and conservatism of the time 
were iiicarnated. To the people of New England this 
paper dared to appeal in these terms : — 

" No one knows better than we do the sincerity with which 
the intelligent population of New England abhor and repro- 
bate the incendiary publications which are intended by their 
authors to lead to precisely such results (as concerns the 
whites) as the Southampton tragedy. But we appeal to the 
people of New England, if not in behalf of the innocent 
women and children of the whites, then in behalf of the 
blacks, whose utter extermination will be the result of anv 
general commotion, whether they will continue to permit 
their humanity to be under the reproach of approving or 
even tolerating the atrocities among them which have already 
caused the plains of the South to be manured with human 
flesh and blood. To be more specific in our object, we now 
appeal to the worthy Ma3'or of the City of Boston, whether 
no law can be found to prevent the publication, in the city 
over which he presides, of such diabolical papers [copies of 
'The Liberator'] as we have seen a sample of here in the 
hands of slaves, and of which there are many in circulation 
to the south of us. AVe have no doubt whatever of the feel- 
ings of Mr. Otis on this subject, or those of his respectable 
constituents. We know they would prompt him and them to 
arrest the instigator of human butchery in bis mad career. 
We know the difficulty which surrounds the subject, because 
the nuisance is not a nuisance, technicalh' speaking, within 
the Umits of Massachusetts. But, surely, if the courts of 
law have no power, pubUc opinion has, to interfere, until the 
intelligent Legislature of Massachusetts can provide a dura- 
ble remedy for this most appalling grievance. The crime is 
as great as that of poisoning a well. . . . We know 
nothing of the man [Garrison] ; we desire not to have him 
unlawfully dealt Avith ; we can even conceive of his motive 



64 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

being good in his own opinion ; but it is the motive of the 
man who cuts the throats of 3'our wife and children." 

Having thus deliberately accused Mr. Garrison of 
the most atrocious crimes, and sought to crush him by 
an intiamed public opinion under the f(;rms of law, 
"The National Intelligencer" was true to itself and to 
the cause it served in refusing to publish his triumph- 
ant defence. It thus illustrated the spirit of American 
slavery, which could not endure the light of a free 
press, but Avas instinctively impelled to hide itself in 
perpetual darkness. In his reply, Mr Garrison said : 

" I appeal to God, whom I fear and serve, and to its pat- 
rons, in proof that the real and only purpose of • Tha Lib- 
erator' is to prevent rebellion, by the application of those 
preservative principles which breathe peace on earth, good- 
will to men. I advance nothing more. I stand on no other 
foundation than this : ' Whatsoever ye would that others should 
do unto you, do ye even so unto them.' I urge the immedi- 
ate abolition of slavery, not only because the slaves possess 
an inahenable right to liberty, but because the system, to 
borrow the words of Mr. Randolph, is ' a volcano in fail 
operation ' ; and by its continuance we must expect a Na- 
tional explosion. . . . The present generation cannot 
appreciate the purity of my motives or the value of my ex- 
ertions. I look to posterity for a good reputation. The un- 
born offspring of those who are now living wi 1 reverse the 
condemnatory decision of my contemporaries. Without pre- 
suming to rank myself among them, I do not forget that 
those reformers who were formerly treated as the ' offscour- 
in"- of the earth' are now lauded be^'ond measure ; I do not 
forget that Christ and His apostles — harmless, undefiled 
and' prudent as they were — were buffeted, calumniated and 
crucified ; and therefore m^^ soul is steady to its pursuit as 
the needle to the i)ole. If we would not see our land deluged 
in blood, we must instantly burst asunder the shackles of 
the slaves — treat them as rational and injured beings — 
give them lands to cultivate and the means of employment, 
aiid multiply schools for themselves and their children. We 
shall then have httle to fear. The wildest beasts may be 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 65 

subdued and rendered gentle by kind treatment. Make the 
slaves free, and every inducement to revolt is taken away. 
. . . I see the design of the clamor raised against ' The 
Liberator.' It is to prevent public indignation from resting 
upon the system of slavery, and to concentrate it upon my 
own head. That system contains the materials of self- 
destruction." 

"The Xational Intelligencer" spoke for the states- 
manship of that time ; but how wild, incoherent, un- 
just and illogical were its utterances ! Mr. Garrison 
was deemed a fanatic ; but mark the wisdom and truth 
of his words, the reasonableness of his appeals, the 
justice of his denunciations and the calmness of his 
reliance upon the judgment of posterity ! The extracts 
I have given above are of the body and spirit of the 
times. They reveal, as nothing else would, the delu- 
sion that rested upon the people at that day, and show 
those of this generation what courage, what faith in 
God, what love for humanity, and what a spirit of self- 
sacrifice it required to begin the fight with American 
slavery. If Garrison had faltered and retreated, what 
calamities miofht not have befallen the Nation ! The 
fate of the Eepublic, according to our limited vision, 
depended upon the fidelity of a single man ; for, if the 
^Nation had o'one on sinnino" ai^^ainst liirlit for another 
generation, where would have been the hope (u its res- 
cue from the ruthless clutch of the Slave Power? 
Already it had sunk into a stupor from which the most 
powerful and startling blasts of truth Avere barely suffi- 
cient to rouse it to life and some degree of moral sensi- 
bility. A little more drugging of conscience, and per- 
chance the call for reform would have been too late, 
and the Ilepublic founded by Washington, Adams and 
Jeiferson might have perished in the foul embrace of 
slavery ! 

Is there not in this a lesson for the present hour? 
On every side we hear the voices of men claiming to 



66 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

be statesmen, who brand as enmity to the South every 
earnest plea for the equal rights of the negro ; who ask 
us to stop our ears to the cry of men driven from the 
ballot-box and defrauded of their wages by violence, 
and to close our eves to the frauds by which the South 
has been made "solid" in order to gain by political 
power the substance of what she failed to achieve by 
the sword. Y/e are told on the one hand that it is per- 
fectly patriotic and reasonable for the semi-civilized 
South to be a unit in her opposition to the vast major- 
ity of the intelligent people of the North : and on the 
other that it is unpatriotic, unreasonable and cruel, a 
revival of all the worst passions and enmities of the 
war, for the latter to fesist the eiforts of the former to 
rule the Nation by an alliance with the men of the 
Northern slums ! The sirens who are filling our ears 
with this song, disguised under smooth and seductive 
phrases, are the natural descendants of the men of a 
previous generation who were forever seeking to lull 
the North into indifference to the negro's wrongs, and 
always ready with some new compromise in the inter- 
est of the slavehoiding class. If the enfranchised men 
of the South were white, the North would be all on 
fire with indignation over their wrongs, and ready to 
exert the last iota of constitutional power for their pro- 
tection. Above all would they take care that the 
oppressors should not, by any political combination 
whatever, gain an ascendancy over the Kepublic. Let 
us have the principle and the courage to do for the 
negro what we should not hesitate to do for the white 
man. The voice of Garrison cries to us out of his 
freshly-made grave, l^idding us not to waste the heri- 
tage won for us by his indomitable courage, and by the 
blood and bravery of our soldiers. 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES, 67 



lY. 

Mr. Garrison's Early Ortliodoxy — No Odor of Heresy about him 
until long after the Churches and the Clergy had Eejected his 
Message — A Christian at the Last no less than at the First — 
Reluctance of Ministers to Pray in Anti-Slavery Meetings — 
Eev. Amos A. Phelps and his Booh — The A. B. C. F. M. — The 
Methodist Church — Dr. Whedon's Denial — Testimony of Judge 
Jay — The Freewill Baptists. 

So persistent have been the efforts made in certain 
quarters to excuse the hostility of tlie ministers and 
churches to the anti-slavery movement on the ground 
of iSIr. Garrison's alleged infidelity, that it becomes im- 
portant to set forth the truth on this subject with great 
clearness. In turning over the leaves of the first vol- 
ume of "The Liberator," we find the evidences of Mr. 
Garrison's thorough-going Orthodoxy in great abun- 
dance. There was not about him the least odor of 
heresy of any kind, save in his belief in the perfect 
humanity of the negro, and in his denunciations of 
slavery as a sin. We find him pleading for the uni- 
versal diffusion qf the Bible as the chief instrumental- 
ity for promoting the cause. "Take away the Bible," 
he exclaims, "and our warfiire with oppression, and 
infidelity, and intemperance, and impurity, and crime 
is at an end ; our weapons are wrested away, our 
foundation is removed ; we have no authority to speak, 
and no courage to act." That in later years he held the 
views of the Bible common among Quakers and Uni- 
tarians is not denied ; but this was long after the 
American clergy and churches had repudiated the anti- 
slavery movement. Indeed, it was this repudiation 
on their part that led him to the investigations which 
resulted in the modification of his inherited views on 



68 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

this and some other points. But to the very last the 
Bil:>lc was to him " the Book of books," and he found 
in its pages the truths on Avhich his soul was fed, and 
which AV-ere his chief reliance in the great struggle 
with slavery. His w^ritiugs and speeches from first to 
last throb with quotations of the most striking appo- 
siteness and power from that book. Above any min- 
ister of the Gospel whom I have ever known, he w^as 
indeed "mighty in the Scriptures," and thousands have 
confessed that before hearing him they Avere not half 
aware of the quickening and inspiring power of the 
volume around Avhich so many of the most sacred 
associations of the Christian world are clustered. 

He Avas also the friend and champion of the revivals 
of religion for Avhich that period AA^as distinguished ; 
looking to them Avith hope as likely to hasten the day 
of emancipation. "Emancipation," he said, "must be 
the Avork of Christianity and of the churches. They 
must achieve the elevation of the blacks, and place 
them on the equality of the Gospel. If the present 
revivals be (as aa^c trust they are) the fruit of the Holy 
Spirit, Ave pray that they may embrace the nation, nor 
cease till the bodies and souls of its population be 
'redeemed, regenerated and disenthralled,' and every 
man shall sit under his oavu vine and fig-tree, there 
being none to molest or make him afraid. Take 
courage, ye mourning slaves, for your redemption is 
at hand." If, not long afterward, he found many of 
the leaders in the revival movement closing churches 
and pulpits against the advocates of emancipation, and 
Avarning converts that if they AA^ould guard the flame of 
their piety from extinction they must not allow them- 
selves to become involved in the anti-slavery excite- 
ment, need Ave Avonder that his faith in revivals, as 
thus conducted, Avas somewhat shaken? And Avhen, 
not much later, the venerable Professor of Theology 
at Audover Avas accustomed to say to his senior class, 



GARRISON AND HIS TDIES. 69 

"Young gentlemen, if you hope to be settled over 
intelligent, cultivated and prosperous parishes, you 
must be careful to keep aloof from the exciting ques- 
tions of the day," is it any wonder that the champion 
of emancipation began to suspect there might be an 
important distinction between the Christianity of 
Christ and that of the American churches ? Who was 
responsible for suggesting this thought to many earnest 
Christian minds is plain enough. 

Another illustration of Mr. Garrison's evangelical 
Orthodoxy is found in his advice to the colored people 
of the country to set apart a day for fasting, humilia- 
tion and prayer on account of the wickedness of slav- 
ery, and the oppressions arising therefrom. " Who," 
he asked, "may estimate the importance of such a 
measure? AYe say to our dear colored brethren, 'Let 
us pray more, and fiist more, and the Lord will do 
great and signal things for us.' " This is the sort of 
infidelity against which the American churches braced 
themselves when they turned their backs upon the 
anti-slavery movement. 

Again, Mr. Garrison held and inculcated in "The 
Liberator" at first the most Orthodox views of the 
Sabbath. He would no sooner have gone to the post- 
office on that day to mail or receive a letter than he 
would have stolen the contents of a contribution-box. 
In "The Liberator" of April 16th, 1831, appeared 
from his pen the following sonnet : — 

THE SABBATH DAY. 

Faint prototype of Heaven, blest Sabbath, day ! 

Emblem of an eternal rest to come ; 
Emancipator from vile Mammon's sway, 

At whose approach a noisy world is dumb : 
Unerring re<j;iilator, sacred pledge ; 

Best friend and soother of the poor and weak ; 
A resting-place in our drear pilgrimage. 

Where soul and body may refreshment seek; 
If thou wert blotted out, our moral sun, 

The huge eclipse: would dress the world in gloom ; 



70 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

Confusion dire would seize on every one, 

And peace, love, order find a hasty tomb; 
Then would oppression reign, then lust rebel. 
Then violence abound, and earth resemble hell I 

If this sonnet does not rank among the best of Mr. 
Garrison's productions in verse, it is yet good enough 
to show the hollowness of the pretence that the Ameri- 
can clergy and churches rejected the anti-slavery move- 
ment because they were unw^illing to folloAV the lead 
of an infidel. Is it not time that men wdio w^ould be 
accounted honorable ceased to utter a calumny so 
easily refuted? 

It is certainly vain to attempt to blot from the page 
of history the sad and disgraceful truth that the repre- 
sentatives of the popular Christianity of that day were 
deaf to the groans and agonies of the slaves, insensible 
of the humanity of the negro, indifferent to the sin 
and shame of slavery, and disposed to take the slave- 
holder's part agaiust every earnest effort for abolition. 
True, there was "a glorious remnant," "fiiithful among 
the faithless found," w'ho espoused the cause with 
ingenuous promptness, and did what they could to 
raTly the ministers and churches to their duty ; but 
they made themselves odious in the sects to which they 
respectively belonged, so strong and overwhelming 
w^as the tide of pro-slavery opinion and sympathy at 
that day. There has been an attempt of late years to 
make the fidelity of these exceptional men a shield and 
covert for the churches that persecuted them ; but the 
justice of God will never permit such a travesty of the 
truth of history. An attempt to show that the Jewish 
nation did not reject and crucify Christ, because all his 
disciples w^ere Jews, and "the common people heard 
him gladly," would not be a whit more preposterous. 
As well deny that the United States w^as a slavehold- 
ing nation because thousands of its citizens were Abo- 
litionists, as deny that the American churches were 



GARRISON AND IIIS TIMES. 71 

"the bulwarks of American slavery" because a small 
remnant among them were found faithful. No clergy- 
man of that clay, however eminent, could have es- 
poused the cause without risking the loss of his parish 
and his reputation at the same time. The swelling 
tide of ecclesiasticism had a power as irresistible as 
that of Niagara, and was sure to overwhelm and swal- 
low up any clergyman who dared to resist it. I re- 
member that the popular pastor of a Congregational 
church near Boston, a man who afterward achieved 
eminence as a writer as well as preacher, lost his pul- 
pit because he delivered a lyceum lecture to the 
colored people of Boston, and because, in the face of 
many private remonstrances, he persisted in remem- 
bering the slaves in his public prayers. The leading 
members of the church were Boston merchants, and 
they informed the pastor that his leanings toward the 
anti-slavery cause were destroying his usefulness. He 
was constrained to avoid an open quarrel by resigning. 
It was thus that the great body of the clergy were 
held captive in the interest of the Slave Power, many 
of them no doubt unwillingly and greatly to their own 
secret disgust. It was almost impossible sometimes 
to find in Boston a clergyman of any standing who 
would so much as consent to open an anti-slavery meet- 
ino- with pra>^er. I remember that on more than one 
occasion I spent a whole day in a vain effort to per- 
suade some one among a dozen white clergymen to 
perform this office, and had at last to accept the ser- 
vices of a " nigger "' preacher from " nigger " hill ! That 
preacher w^as dear old Father Samuel Snowdon, one of 
the brightest, wittiest and best men, black as he was, 
that ever entered a pulpit. His genius was not below 
that of Father Taylor, who was also a preacher to seamen, 
and a iMethodist ; but of course '' nigger" sailors could 
not worship with white ones on terms of equality in 
Boston, and so Father Snowdon found his sphere. His 



72 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

prayers were as full of salt and as nautical in their 
phraseology as those of his white brother. The Aboli- 
tionists were proud of liim, and his prayers Avere as re- 
markable for their oddity as for their fervor. I remem- 
ber that on the occasion above referred to he prayed 
thus : "O Lord, bless the good British ship ^Buzzard/ 
that rescued a cargo of slaves the other day on the 
African coast. Give her a fair wind, Lord, and drive 
her right into port. And, O God ! we pray that that 
seven-headed, ten-horned monster, the Colonization 
Society, ma}^ be smitten tlirougli and through with the 
fiery darts of truth, and tormented as the whale is be- 
tween the sword-fish and the thresher." 

On one occasion, however, in 1833, we were to have 
a meeting in the Representatives' Hall in the State 
House. How it happened that we got the use of the 
hall I am not now sure ; but it had been granted to the 
Colonization Society a short time before, and I believe 
the simple-minded country members of the Legisla- 
ture concluded that we ought to have it once, just to 
make things even. At any rate we were to have it, 
:»<!id it w^as thought important that some white minister 
of good standing should serve as chaplain on the occa- 
sion. It became my duty to procure such an one if pos- 
sible. I was then editor of a little paper, " The Christian 
Soldier," which, being devoted to the resistance of the 
then rising heresy of Universalism, was in favor among 
the evangelical clergy of Boston, with many of whom 
I was personally acquainted. To one after another of 
these I went with my plea, only to be met with a stern 
refusal. Not one of them could be persuaded so far 
to countenance an Abolition meeting as to pray for it. 
Last of all I went to my dear friend, the Kev. Amos 
A. Phelps, pastor of the Pine Street Church, who had 
but just begun his ministry in the city. He had been 
considering the slavery question, but had not fully 
made up his mind what he ought to do. I told him of 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 73 

my ill-luck with the older and more conspicuous pas- 
tors, and besought him to come to the rescue. He at 
first declined, telling me he had just come to a struggling 
church and was afraid its prosperity might be endan- 
gered if he should comply with my request. At length, 
hoAvever, seeing how deeply I felt on the subject, he 
agreed to my proposal with fear and trembling. The 
censures bestowed upon him by his brethren, for thus 
giving countenance to the Abolition movement, led him 
to deeper reflection upon t lie subject, and he soon after- 
ward took his stand openly as an Abolitionist. His sub- 
sequent services in the cause were invaluable. Up to 
that time the Abolitionists had been somewhat puzzled 
to find an exact definition of slavery, by which it could, 
under all circumstances, be distinguished from any 
any other human relation or institution. Mr. Phelps 
was distinguished as a logician, and when he entered 
upon the discussion of the subject he saw the need of 
a definition so clear as to exclude cavil, and after care- 
ful study and reflection he hit upon this : Slavery is 
the Jiolding of a human being as property. In all sub- 
sequent discussions of the subject this definition, which 
was universally accepted, was of great value. It en- 
abled us to sweep away at once a whole brood of soph- 
istries that had sprung from the confounding of slavery 
with the relation of parent and child, of master and 
apprentice, of criminal and magistrate, etc., and to show 
that the system was in its very nature a sin against 
God and a crime against man. It was taken up by all 
the anti-slavery speakers, who found it would stand 
every test applied to it, and that it greatly simplified 
the argument against slavery, making it clear to the 
understanding of common men. Mr. Phelps Avas wont 
to say that he owed his conversion to the anti-slavery 
cause to me. If he was right, then I have not lived 
in vain nor been wholly useless to the cause in which 
so much of my life has been spent ; for few men were 

10 



74 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

more successful than he in convincmg the judgment 
and swaying the convictions of men. As a lecturer 
and editor daring the period antecedent to the division 
of 1839, he did the cause noble service. Of his course 
after that date this is not the place to speak. 

The American Board of Foreign Missions was then 
rising into prominence and power, and drawing to it- 
self the sympathy and almost idolatrous reverence of 
the churches, especially in New England. It was nat- 
ural to expect that the men who were contributing of 
their wealth to redeem the heathen in the farthest ends 
of the earth from their ignorance and debasement 
would be among the first to respond to an appeal in 
behalf of the heathenized and imbruted slaves at home. 
But all such expectations proved vain. The managers 
of the Board were deadly hostile to the anti-slavery 
movement from the start. The piety of Boston was 
subsidized in the interest of the cotton trade. ^ The 
champions of the Board appeared to think that if the 
churches should become enlisted in the anti-slavery 
cause, they would cease to feel a proper interest in for- 
eign missions. And so, while the churches were con- 
stantly reminded of the ignorance and degradation of 
the heathen abroad, every pains was taken to conceal 
or excuse the enforced debasement of the heathen at 
home. It was held to be a primary duty of the Amer- 
can churches to send the Bible and the Gospel of Christ 
to foreign nations sitting in darkness and the shadow 
of death ; but at the same time it was held to be per- 
fectly compatible with Christianity and the teaching of 
the Holy Book to prevent men and women born and liv- 
ing in America from learning how to spell the name of 
God, to compel them to work Avithout wages under the 
lash, and to sell them on the auction-block and put the 
proceeds in the Lord's treasury ! Oh, what a night of 
ignorance, delusion and sin was that from which the 
auti-slavery movement delivered the American people ! 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 75 

"While these sketches were passing through the col- 
umns of "The Ne\y York Tribune," the truthfulness 
of the statements made in the preceding pages con- 
cernins: the attitude of the churches iVoni 1830 to iho 
close of 1833 was calked in question by the Kev, Dr. 
Whedon, editor of " The Methodist Quarterly lleview." 
Paying a tribute to my ''profound honesty," he never- 
theless is bold enough to pronounce my statements, 
"so far as Methodism is concerned, unhistorical and 
false." As the reader will observe, I had said nothing 
specifically of the ]Methodist church, but oily alluded 
to the churches generally, as unfriendly to the anti- 
slavery movement. AVliy, then, this haste to put in 
a defence of Methodism, as if it had been particularly 
assailed? Whatever may have been the motive, my 
"profound honesty" will no doubt be accepted as a 
guaranty of my gratitude to any one who will detect 
any essential error in my statements. But, having 
duly considered Dr. Wheclon's attemi)t to impeach my 
historical verity, lam constrained to re-alfirm the state- 
ments of which he complained. It is true, as he says, 
that " Methodism," or a portion of the Methodist 
church, "responded early "to the voice of Garrison; 
but that response was not heard until 1835, as theliles 
of the Methodist paper published in Boston at that 
period will show; and when it was at length heard. 
Dr. Whcdon did all that he could to smother it, by heap- 
ing the grossest abuse upon Mr. Garrison, caricatur- 
ing his principles and misrepresenting his designs. 
The Doctor says, " it is certain that the delegates to 
our ijeneral conference of 1832 from the New Emrland 
animal conference were, to a man, ' Garrisonian Aboli- 
tionists,' indorsing and affiliating vrith his societies." 
Now the onl}' society representing ^Ir. Garrison's views 
at that period, so far as I can recollect, was the New 
England Anti- Slavery Society, which was organized 
in January, 1832, while the General Conference met 



76 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

ill May. I have before me now, a list of the delegates 
to that conference from New England, and among them 
I do not hnd one who, at that time, was known to mo 
as a " Garrisoniaii Abolitionist." I Avas the secretary of 
the Anti-Slavery Society, and if these delegates were 
to a man "affiliated" with it, it seems strange that I 
should have been ignorant of the fact. The Hev. Dr. 
Wilbur Fisk was one of the body of delegates who, 
according to Dr. Whedon, "were to a man affiliated 
with " Mr. Garrison. If he was an Abolitionist at that 
period, then it will be safe to reckon John C. Calhoun 
and George McDuffie in the same category. Other 
histories besides mine Avill in that case demand correc- 
tion at the hands of Dr. Whedon. The simple truth 
is that the files of the Boston Methodist paper from 
1831 to 1834, afford no more evidence of any excite- 
ment in the church on the subject of slavery than can 
be found in any cemetery. The excitement that be- 
gan in 1835, w^ith the discussion opened in "Zion's 
Herald " by Orange Scott, grew directly out of Mr. 
Garrison's"^ movement, after that long period of dead- 
ness and silence in the whole Northern church to which 
1 have referred in previous pages. 

Dr. Whedon claims to have "coincided," as an anti- 
slavery man, "with Benjamin Lundy ; " but I venture 
to say, that that sturdy old Quaker could have read 
what Dr. AVhedon wrote on the subject of slavery in 
1835 with no other emotions than those of disgust 
and indignation. The Doctor will find that Benjamin 
Lundy's" Quaker coat and hat will not avail him as a 
rampart in his warfare against Mr. Garrison. There 
was no such discrepancy in the views of those two re- 
formers as he seems to suppose. 

Again, Dr. Whedon says: "As to the earlier date 
of my anti-slavery ism, I may say that I voted w^ith the 
germinal Liberty Party somewhere about 1834, for 
Governor of Connecticut; with the same party for 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 77 

James G. Birney," etc. According to this he was more 
concerned for the anti-slavery purity of his political party 
than for that of his church. He could not vote for a 
slaveholder or an apologist for slavery at the polls, but 
he could be a member and a minister of a church, 
thousands of whose members were permitted to buy 
and sell slaves as they bought and sold cattle in the 
market ; and he gave his time and strength for years 
in opposing and hindering those who sought to free the 
church from this abomination. But I find it difficult 
to reconcile his claim to have been a voter " with the 
germinal Liberty Party somewhere about 1834," with 
the flict that in "'Zion's Herald " of March 18, 1835, ho 
endeavored to excite the public indignation against the 
Abolitionists on the special ground that they intended 
ultimately to make their movement a "political party 
agitation," and only "wanted strength" to do so at 
once. He even fortified himself in his assault by a 
quotation from Mr. Garrison, from which it would 
seem that the founder of the anti-slavery movement 
was himself the originator of the good Doctor's politi- 
cal party, in co-operating with which, even then, five 
years before its birth, he was finding relief for his in- 
tense hostility to slavery. In 1835 he arraigned Mr. 
Garrison as an unpatriotic and designing man, and held 
him up to public reprobation, for saying, "that the im- 
mediate emancipation of the slaves in the District of 
Columbia and the Territories is to be made a test at the 
2^olls ;"andyet, "somewhere about 1834," he was himself 
slily voting with " the germinal Liberty Party " for the 
same purpose ! 

The good Doctor having thus condescended to correct 
my " unhistorical and false " statements concerning 
Methodism, ventures to make, on his own account, this 
contribution to the history of the anti-slavery cause : 
" Every step he [Garrison] took and word he uttered 
maddened the slaveholders and solidified them into 



78 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

hostile acliimaiit." Dr. Whedoii was more prudent. 
He would have so orp:anized the anti-slavery movement 
as to please and conciliate the traffickers in humanflesh. 
lie was wiser even than the Son of God, whose im- 
prudences of speech "solidiiicd " the Jewish nation, and 
particularly the Scribes and Pharisees, " into hostile 
adamant," bringing upon himself thereby a cruel death. 
It is a pity that Dr. Whedonwas not born early enough 
to teach " the man Christ Jesus " a better way. But he 
goes on : "Hence [^. e., because he offended the slave- 
holders] , the great body of the best anti-slavery thinkers 
stood apart from him ; and as these were generally 
Christian, IMr. Garrison and many of his followers 
grew rabid and hostile to evangelical Christianity. In- 
lidcls and semi-iniidels gathered around him, opened 
their batteries on the churches, and availed themselves 
of the situation to discredit Christianity. Mr. John- 
son's denunciation of the churches in his narrative is 
written somewhat after that model." 

Are these statements true ? Let ns see. From 
1832 to 1839-40 the Abolitionists, under the lead of 
Mr. Garrison, were a united body. The men referred 
to as " the best anti-slavery thinkers " were in close 
affinity with the movement. Moreover, the vast ma- 
jority of the Abolitionists — including for a large portion 
of the time Mr. Garrison himself — were evangelical 
Christians. During this period there was no difterence 
of opinion between Mr. Garrison and the class whom 
Dr. Whedon calls " the best anti-slavery thinkers," con- 
cerning the attitude of the American churches in ro- 
spt'ct to slavery. Those churches were denounced by 
Mr. Garrison no whit more severely than they were by 
eminent evangelical Christi;ins, both clergy m:Mi and 
laymon. It there were any infidels or senii-inlidels 
connected with the cause, they were to me unknown. 
On the contrary, I believe the " Boston Investigator," 
the infidel organ of that day, was just as hostile to the 



GARPtlSON AND HIS TIMES. 79 

anti-slavery movement as the "Boston Eecorcler." If 
there was any striking of hands with infidelity, it was 
on the part not of the Abolitionists, but of their evan- 
gelical opponents. Indeed, during the whole history 
of the movement, with the single exception of that 
noble woman, Ernestine L. Eose, I do not remember 
a single prominent speaker on our platform who could 
truthfully have been called an infidel. Not that we 
should have failed to welcome their aid, but that like 
so many Christians of the period they were hostile or 
indifferent. In all those years the lecturing a^-ents of 
the cause w^ere for the most part evangelical men, many 
of them ministers or theological students. It was dur- 
ing these very yearsthat "the slaveholders were solidi- 
fied into hostile adamant," not more by Mr. Garrison* 
than by Dr. Leavitt, James G. Birney, Amos A. Phelps, 
and scores of other evangelical men, who stood 
shoulder to shoulder with him. 

The divisions of 1839-40, of Vvhich I shall give an ac- 
count hereafter, did, indeed, take a large body of evan- 
gelical Abolitionists into the new organizations ; but 
there were scores of others who remained with Mr. 
Garrison, and there was never a moment when more 
than one evangelical Christian was not found willing- 
to serve the cause upon the executive committee of the 
American Anti-Slavery Society. After the division 
there was no change whatever on the part of Mr. Gar- 
rison and his friends toward the churches, whether 
evangelical or liberal ; no new " opening of batteries " 
against them, and no assault upon their theoloo-ical 
beliefs. The charge that Mr. Garrison and his associ- 
ates " availed themselves of the situation to discredit 
Christianity " is wholly untrue. On the contrary, they 
honored Christianity while faithfully denouncing pro- 
slavery churches, and during most of the years when 
the pro-slavery press was branding them as infidels, 
they had the co-operation of that intensely or- 



80 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

thodox body, the old-school Covenanters. The at- 
tempt to discredit what I have said in this work re- 
specting the pro-slavery attitude of the churches, by the 
intimation that it is colored in the slightest degree by 
my theological views, is grossly unjust. I extenuate 
naught on the one hand, and on the other I set down 
naught in malice. My aim is to speak the exact truth 
without fear or favor. And in fact, I have said no 
more than I can prove by the most unimpeachable 
evangelical testimony. If Dr. Whedon attributes what 
I have said to hostility to evangelical religion, Avhat 
will he say to this testimony of the Hon. William Jay, 
a distinguished member of the Protestant Episcopal 
church, and eminent during his life for piety and the 
love of Christian institutions? He was, moreover, I 
presume, one of "the best anti-slavery thinkers," to 
whom Dr. Whedon alludes as " standing apart " (after 
1840) fromMr. Garrison. Writingin 1857,— twenty- 
three years after the period to which I referred, and 
when the churches had had ample time to correct any 
earlier mistakes, — Judge Jay says : — 

" If we turn to the American church, a naonrnful scene 
meets our view. The church, whose office it is to distribute 
the bread of life, is scattering the apples of Sodom. 

The northern church is, witli rare exceptions, pursu- 
ing, in regard to slavery, a time-serving, man-pleasing policy, 
probably still more offensive to God than that of our pro- 
slavery politicians. The larger portion of our clergy, like 
the priest and Levite rebuked by our Lord, pass by on the 
other side, evincing neither sympathy for their wounded 
brother, nor indignation against his assailants ;. while others 
pass over to the thieves, bless them in the nam.e of the Lord, 
and aid in robbing their helpless victim. Of all our north- 
ern churches, the Methodist has offered the most striking 
and })ainful illustration of the corrupting influence of polit- 
ical and ecclesiastical union with slaveholders. The liNpoc- 
risy of this church is melancholy and astounding. Founded 
as an anti-slavery church, and recording in its standards the 
most express condemnation of slavery as sinful, it became 
the unscrupulous tool of the slaveholders." 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 81 

Would it not be more manly in Dr. Whedon, and 
others like him, to plead to this indictment, drawn by 
the hand of Judge Jay, than to endeavor to break the 
force of similar statements, made by Mr. Garrison and 
his friends, by unscrupulous and false accusations of 
infidelity, and of a "rabid hatred of evangelical Chris- 
tianity"? 

It ofives me aTcat pleasure to mention one Christian 
denomination, somewhat numerous in parts or JNew 
England, as well as in other States, that deserves to 
be excepted from the censures I have been compelled 
to bestow upon the rest. I allude to the Freewill 
Baptists, who, from the beginning, refused to receive 
slaveholders into communion, and most of whom ^vero 
prompt to espouse the doctrine of immediate emanci- 
pation. The " Morning Star," the organ of the denom- 
ination, did much to inform public sentiment on the 
subject of slavery, especially in New Hampshire, 
where it had a large circulation. The constituency of 
this church was mainly among the common people, 
where its influence was chiefly felt. Its leaders refused 
to follow the example of other churches in countenanc- 
ing slavery, and for this reason they incurred much 
censure and some persecution. It is not too much to 
say that it was more through the influence of the 
*^ Morning Star " than from any other cause, that the 
powder of the pro-slavery Democracy in New Hamp- 
shire was first broken, and John P. Hale elected to the 
senate of the United States. That the Freewill Bap- 
tists were in all respects consistent and as earnest as 
they should have been in their testimony against slav- 
ery, it would be too much to affirm ; but, compared 
with the churches around them, they were as light in 
the midst of darkness. If all other Christian denom- 
inations had come up to their level, the chains of the 
slaves might have been In^oken by moral power. 

11 



82 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 



V. 

Tbo First Anti-Slavery Society — Differences Among Friends — 
Triumph of Principle over Expediency — The Anti-SUivcry 
Twelve and their One Traitor — A Dismal but an Auspicioaa 
Night — The Quaker Hatter — The First Appeal to the Public — 
Dr. Ceecher's Opposition — Emerson — Great Expectations and 
an luviuciblo Faith — Might of the Opposition — The Quakers 
— Cheering Words from Over the Sea. 

Mr. Garrison, even before starting "The Liberator," 
looked to the organization of anti-slavery societies, at 
the earliest possible clay, as a necessary means of 
advancins: the cause. He knew somcthins: of the work 
which the Abolitionists of England were doing by 
this means, and longed to see their example followed 
in America. The subject was constantly in his mind, 
and he did not fail to urge it upon the attention of 
others. The great benevolent societies, formed under 
the auspices of the different religious denominations as 
a means of extending Christianity, were then just get- 
ting under way, and beginning to awaken the enthusi- 
asm of the churches. Bible, tract, missionary and 
temperance associations were common, and the reviv- 
als of the period had awakened the hope in multitudes 
of Christian bosoms that the millennium was coming 
on apace. Dr. Lyman Beecher, then at the head of 
the evangelical clergy of New England, if not of 
America, was full of this theme, and his eloquent 
words stirred the churches as the blast of a trumpet 
stirs the hearts of an embattled host. Mr. Garrison's 
heart responded warmly to these appeals, but he saw, 
as the leaders of the church did not, that these dreams 
of the millennium could never be realized until slavery 



GARRISON AND HIS TLVIES. 83 

slioiikl be put out of the way. They, in their blincV 
iicss, were afraid that any excitement on the subject of 
slavery would quench the influences of the Holy Spirit, 
stop revivals of religion, and paralyze the energies of 
the churches ; while" to his clearer vision it Avas mani- 
fest that shivery was the mightiest of all hindrances to 
the growth of Christianity, and that the guilty com- 
plicit}' of the pulpit and the church with the system 
would inevitably counteract their efforts for the spread 
of the gospel. He longed, therefore, to see anti- 
slavery societies organized by the score, and the whole 
country astir with anti-slavery excitement. But the 
tide ran heavily against him, and it was not till near 
the end of 1831 that any step toward organization w^as 
taken. On the 13th of November hfteen persons 
assembled in the office of Mr. Samuel E. Sewall, in 
State Street, to consider the subject. Of course these 
liftecn gentlemen were known to be warmly interested 
in the cause, and it was agreed in advance that we 
would form a society if the apostolic number of twelve 
should be found ready for the movement. 

Of this little company Mr. Garrison was, of course, 
the central ligure. He unfolded his purposes and 
plans without reserve, telling us w^hat the Abolition- 
ists of Great Britain had done since, under the inspira- 
tion of Elizabeth Heyrick, they had put their move- 
ment on the ground of immediate, in distinction from 
gradual, emancipation. lie wanted societies formed 
in America upon the same principle, and could not be 
satisfied with any scheme of gradualism. The Rev. 
Samuel J. May w^as one of the gentlemen present, and 
in his "Becol lections of the Anti-Slavery Conflict" 
(p. 31) he states that only nine of the number were 
believers in immediate emancipation. Upon this point 
my recollection diflers from his. I believe every man 
present admitted the duty and safety of setting the 
slaves free at once : but six of the number doubted 



84 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

the wisdom of incorporating that principle into the 
constitution of the society, believing that it would 
excite popuhir prejudice, and thus tend to defeat the 
object in view. They thought it would be better to 
leave the question of immediatism open for a time, 
until public opinion could be enlightened, and to admit 
to membership gradualists as well as immediatists. 
Nor did they doubt that " whosoever retains his fellow- 
man in bondage is guilty of a grievous wrong," but 
they doubted the wisdom of saying so in the constitu- 
tion of the society, as they thought it would repel 
from membership many whose co-operation was desira- 
ble. But Mr. Garrison was firm in the conviction that 
the vitality of the movement depended upon a frank 
avowal of fundamental principles, however unpopular 
they might be ; and the vote upon the question showed 
that nine were in favor of organizing upon his plan, 
while six were opposed. 

'^ Another meeting wjis held at the same place on the 
16th of December. Ten gentlemen were present, and, 
after considerable discussion, Messrs. David Lee 
Child, Samuel E. Sewall, William Lloyd Garrison, 
Ellis Gray Loring iand Oliver Johnson were appointed 
a committee to draft a constitution for an Anti-Slavery 
Society, to be reported January 1, 1832. At the 
next meetinsr there was an additional attendance of 
Alonzo Lewis (known as the "Lynn Bard"), William 
J. Snelling (a man of some literary note). Dr. Abner 
Phelps, the Rev. Elijah Blanchard (editor of an anti- 
masonic religious paper) and Dr. Gamaliel Bradford. 
The body of the constitution reported by the commit- 
tee was adopted, but the preamble was referred for 
revision to another committee, to be reported to an 
adjourned meeting to be held January 6, in the 
school-room under the African Baptist Church, in Bel- 
knap Street. Of that adjourned meeting my recollec- 
tions are very vivid. A tierce north-east storm, com- 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 85 

billing snow, rain and hail in about equal proportions, 
was rao^ing, and the streets were full of slush. They 
were dark too, for the city of Boston in those days 
was very economical of light on "Nigger Hill." It 
almost seemed as if nature was frowning upon the new 
effort to abolish slavery. But the spirits of the little 
company rose superior to all external circumstances. 
They knew that their cause was just, and that God 
and truth were on their side, and therefore nothing 
could discourage them. On that dismal night, and in 
the flice of a public opinion fiercer far than the tempest 
of wind and hail that beat upon the windows of that 
"niorcrer school-house," were laid the foundations of an 
organized movement against American slavery that at 
last became too mighty to be resisted, and that drew 
into its wake the statesmanship as well as the piety 
and philanthropy of the country. 

David Lee Child, editor of " The Massachusetts 
Journal," presided. The committee on the preamble 
to the constitution made its report. This preamble, 
as drawn by William J. Snelling, was in the following 
words : — 

"We, the undersigned, hold that every person, of fall age 
and sane mind, has a right to immediate freedom from per- 
sonal bondage of whatsoever kind, unless imposed by the 
sentence of the law for the commission of some crime. We 
hold that man cannot, consistently with reason, religion and 
the eternal and immutable principles of justice, be the prop- 
erty of man. We hold that whoever retains his fellow-man 
in bondage is guilty of a grievous wrong. We hold that 
mere difference of complexion is no reason wh>^ any man 
should be deprived of any of his natural rights, or subjected 
to any political disability. While we advance these opinions 
as the principles on which we intend to act, we declare that 
we will not operate on the existing relations of societ}' by 
other than peaceful and lawful means, and that we will give 
no countenance to violence or insurrection." 



8G GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

Behold ill this the fanaticism, the incendiarism, and 
the infidelity of the anti-slavery movement, which the 
churches of America scorned and resisted, and against 
which American statesmanship arra3'ed itself in fiercest 
contempt and hostiUty ! To the principles and spirit 
of the above preamble the Abolitionists were faithful 
from first to last. They assailed slavery in the name of 
God, of Christ and the Bible, and not an infidel senti- 
ment was ever uttered from their platform. 

The preamble was the subject of earnest discussion 
in the meetins:. If I remember arisrht, no one denied 
its truth, but further doubts were expressed as to the 
expediency of putting the new society openly on the 
basis of immediate emancipation. Among those who 
took this view of the matter were David Lee Child, 
Samuel E. Sewall and Ellis Gray Loring, than whom 
there were no more earnest and devoted friends of the 
cause. The majority, however, adopted the pream- 
ble, and then the Constitution was presented for sig- 
natures. Twelve persons (all white) signed it, as 
follows : 

William Lloyd Garrison, Oliver Johnson, Bobert 
B. Hall, Arnold BulFum, William J. Snelling, John 
E. Fuller, Moses Thacher, Joshua Cofiin, Stilhnan B. 
Newcomb, Benjamin C. Bacon, Isaac Knapp, Henry 
K. Stockton. 

Of these twelve men I was the youngest, and I am 
probably the only one now living. Messrs. Child, 
Sewall and Loring refused their names at that time, 
but they joined the society shortly afterward, and were 
amomj: its most useful and influential members. Of 
the twelve ori2:inal simmers, I believe there w^ere not 
more than one or two who could have put a hundred 
dollars into the treasury w^ithout bankrupting them- 
selves ! The society was called "The New England 
Anti-Slavery Society." It was the first association 
ever organized in this country upon the principle of 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 87 

immecliatc abolition, and the parent of the numerous 
other affiliated associations v/hich in the next few years 
created an anti-slavery agitation that shook the land 
from end to end. The .preamble, sound as it was in 
principle, did not prove quite satistactor}^ and its form 
was changed at the end of the lirst year. The lirst 
officers of the society Avere : Arnold Bufium (a Qua- 
ker), President; First Vice-President, George C. Odi- 
orne, a Boston merchant ; Second Vice-President, 
Alonzo Lewis, the "Lynn Bard"; Corresponding 
Secretary, William Lloyd Garrison ; Eecording Sec- 
retary, Joshua Coffin, antiquarian (Whittier's school- 
master) ; Treasurer, Michael H. Simpson ; Counsel- 
lors, Moses Thacher, John E. Fuller, Oliver Johnson, 
Eobei-t B, Hall, Benjamin C. Bacon and Samuel E. 
Scwall. These were respectable, but neither eminent 
nor popular names, and I remember how their insig- 
niiicancc was often contrasted with the long list of 
statesmen and divines that constituted the official 
board of the Colonization Society. It was thought to 
be excessively ludicrous that a small association of 
"nobodies" should be talking of abolishing American 
slavery, when the great body of the people believed 
that the scheme was utterly impracticable. The Rev. 
Joshua N. Danforth, agent of the Colonization Society, 
often took occasion to sneer at " the men with more 
blood than brains," who, under the lead of Arnold 
Bullum, "the Quaker hatter," had undertaken a job 
from which the great statesmen and divines of the 
country shrank in utter dismay. In the then state of 
public opinion such appeals to prejudice were exceed- 
ingly effective. But those who made them should have 
remembered the words of Paul : "The foolishness of 
God is wiser than men ; and the weakness of God is 
stronger than men. . . . Not many wise men 
after Uie flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are 
called ; but God hath chosen the foolish things of the 



88 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

world to confound the wise ; and God hath chosen the 
weak thing's of the world to confound the thinirs which 
arc mighty; and base things of the world, and things 
which are despised, hath God chosen, 3^ea, and things 
which are not, to brinsr to naus^ht thinirs that are : that 
no flesh should glory in his presence." 

As the little company that formed the new society 
were stepping out into the storm and darkness from 
the African school-house, where their work was accom- 
plished, Mr. Garrison impressively remarked: "We 
have met to-nisfht in this obscure school-house ; our 
numbers are few and our influence limited ; but, mark 
my prediction, Faneuil Hall shall ere long echo with 
the principles we have set forth. We shall shake the 
Nation by their mighty power." I well remember 
those words as they fell from the lips of our great 
leader, but I am indebted for their preservation to my 
friend, the late Benjainin C. Bacon, among whose pri- 
vate memoranda they Avere found after his death, and 
who doubtless wrote them down shortly after they 
were uttered. How well the prophecy they contain 
has been fulfilled I need not say. 

If our cause, like Christianity, started with the union 
of twelve men, so also, our twelve, like that of Jesus, 
had its one traitor. The man to whom I allude was 
then a theolos^ical student. After entering' the minis- 
try he found the cross of abolitionism too heavy to 
bear, as it interfered with his clerical ambitions, and 
so he threw it ofl*. It was not loner afterward that he 
was compelled, l)y charges affecting his moral charac- 
ter, to leave the ministry. He did not, however, like 
Judas, go out and hang himself, but after some years 
«rot elected to Congress as a "Know-Nothin2r." I am 
glad to say that while a member of that body he so far 
returned to the faith of his earlier years as to vote 
right upon the anti-slavery issues of the time. 

The first thing which the new society did was to 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 89 

make an appeal in a public address to the people of 
New England. That appeal was written by the Rev. 
Moses Thacher, one of the original "twelve," and the 
editor of "The Boston Telegraph." In theology he 
was of the school of Emmons, and wielded a powerful 
pen. The address was alike strong in argument and 
felicitous in style, and fitted in every waj^ to stir the 
heart of the reader. Mr. Thacher subsequently left 
New England and became a minister of the Presbyte- 
rian Church, in whose service he died about two years 
ago. 

"On the Fourth of July, 1831, the church of which 
Dr. Beecher was the pastor held a morning meeting 
for prayer, and the Doctor made an address, exhort- 
ing his hearers to support the Colonization Society, 
an"d sneering at "the few foolish whites" who were op- 
posing it, and advocating the immediate emancipation 
of the slaves, "reckless of consequences." The good 
Doctor thought it quite feasible to deport the whole 
black population of the United States to Africa, but 
ridiculed as impracticable the idea of emancipating the 
slaves upon the soil. Mr. Garrison, who was a mem- 
ber of his congregation, answered him in "The Liber- 
ator," in part as follows : — 

"After all, I think it \vill be easy to prove that the Doc- 
tor is not more sapient than immediate AboKtionists. I 
never knew him to be wise enough in his pulpit to tell his 
hearers that if they were habitually guilty of drunkenness, 
of exercising cruelty, of stealing property, of committing 
adultery, they must refrain from these crimes gradually, and 
aim at an uncertain, indefinite, far-off reformation. Such a 
doctrine might quiet the consciences and tickle the ears of 
drunkards, tyrants, thieves and debauchees ; but it would 
hardly be tolerated, even from the lips of Lyman Beecher, 
by the worshippers in Bowdoin Street meeting-house. Now, 
slavery is a violation of every natural right ; it is a sys- 
tem of robbery, adultery, cruelty and murder, and its per- 
petuity justly exposes the nation to the wrath of Heaven. 



90 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

Yet he is foolish, in the Doctor's estimation, who tells the 
slaveholdoi's to leave oil' their sins at once, and to be, to-da}^, 
honest and humane men. For one, I cannot listen to any 
proposal for a gradual abolition of wickedness." 

INIr. Garrison also reminded the Doctor that among 
"tho. foolish whites" who were "madly" callino- for the 
immediate a1)olition of slavery mi£>-ht be reckoned a 
very large majority of the wisest and best men in Great 
Britain, including Clarkson, Wilberforce, Brougham, 
Lushington, Stephen and O'Connell ; and the most 
eminent clerirvmen of all denominations. I refer to 
this only as illustrating the w^ay in which the contest 
between the Abolitionists and the Church went on ; for 
in reality Dr. Beecher spoke for the latter as really as 
Mr. Garrison did for the former. Their encounter 
was but an epitome of the whole argument between 
the two parties, and which of them has most occasion 
to l)lush in view of the record it is needlesAo say. 

After wdiat I have said of the degeneracy of the Bos- 
ton clergy in those days, it is pleasant to record the 
fact that Ralph Waldo Emerson, then pastor of a Uni- 
tarian church in that city, on Sunday evening. May 29, 
1831, had the courage to open his pulpit for the delivery 
of an anti-slavery sermon by the llev. Samuel J. May. 
What a powerful influence Mr. Emerson afterw^ard ex- 
erted in moulding the public opinion that led to the 
abolition of slavery every intelligent American knows. 

The new society began its w^ork with a ])ravo heart, 
in the full belief that success w^ould ere long crow^n its 
exertions. In social influence, as wxll as in pecuniary 
resources,' it was indeed almost ludicrously weak ; but 
in the strength of its principles, and in the. firmness of 
its faith in God, it was not only mighty, but invinci- 
ble. They remembered (those infidels I) the truth af- 
terward so vigorously expressed by Theodore Parker : 
"Truth is a part of the celestial machinery of God, 
and whoso puts that machinery in gear for mankind 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 91 

Lath the Ahuighty to turn his wheel." But while on 
the one hand they were fully sensible that they had 
undertaken no holiday task, they were upon the other 
but feebl}^ conscious of the power which slavery had 
acquired over the American Government and the 
American churches, and little aware of the amount of 
persecution and self-denial they would bo called to en- 
dure. If they had known the worst, would their cour- 
age have been adequate to the work, or would they 
have shrunk back in utter despair? God only knows. 
Their weakness, whatever it may have been, was not 
unknoAvn to Him, and it may have been His design to 
enlist them in the work, and then to develop their 
courage and devotion l)y such experiences as tliey were 
prepared to endure, until they should become capable 
at length of beariug all that would come upon them in 
their lon^: and bitter struo'<Tlc. In all sfreat movements 
for the overthrow of giant evils this seems to be the 
way of Providence. If the leaders of the Protestant 
Eeformation had foreseen all the suffering they would 
be called to endure, would their courage have been 
equal to their day? And it' the fathers of our Repub- 
lic had known from the start that they could establish 
their rights only by a long and bloody war with the 
mightiest nation on the globe, and by a complete sev- 
erance of the political ties that bound them to the 
mother country, might they not have shrunk appalled 
from so mighty and so doubtful a task? In these, and 
in a hundred other similar instances, no doubt, men 
rushed with impetuous but honest impulse into a 
righteous contest, gaining the required courage and 
devotion as the fight went on, until at last they be- 
came invinGiI)le. In all such contests how many run 
\\'vW for a season, and then, una])le to bear the cross, 
become stragglers and deserters ! The anti-slavery 
moyement, in this respect, was no exception to the 
general rule. Many a man who fought well so long 



92 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

as he felt sure that the victory would be speedily won, 
fell out of the ranks when he found that the battle 
would be fierce and long. It would be easy to give 
the names of some of these deserters, but I will not 
thus rescue them from deserved oblivion. 

It seems ludicrous now, but I remember that the 
least enthusiastic of our number thought it would not 
take more than ten years at the utmost to abolish slav- 
ery ! With the Declaration of Independence and the 
Bible, and God himself, on our side, how could the 
contest be any longer protracted ? Our simplicity will 
seem all the more wonderful Avhen it is remembered 
that we looked for emancipation through moral forces 
alone, and through the conversion of the slaveholders 
themselves to our doctrines. Our expectation, in 
spite of first untoward appearances, was, that the 
American Church and pulpit would be speedily en- 
listed on our side, that the free discussion of the sub- 
ject would be at length tolerated in the South, and that 
the moral influences thus set in play Avould soon prevail 
over all opposition. How could the slaveholders long 
resist the evidence that slavery was not only wrong, 
but positively injurious to their best interests? With 
a free press pouring the light of truth into every dark 
place in the land, with the pulpit summoning the na- 
tion to repentance for its sin, with the churches over- 
flowing with sympathy for the slave and bearing a fliith- 
ful testimony against his wrongs, and with the voices 
of enlighted statesmen pleading for the right, how was 
it possible that the victory could be long delayed ? Alas, 
alas ! how little we then dreamed that slavery Avas to 
find in the pulpits and churches — then on fire with 
zeal for the conversion of the world to Christ — its 
chief bulwarks; that the authorized expounders of the 
Bible would "torture its hallowed pages" to show that 
slaveholding, instead of being sinful, was perfectly com- 
patible with a Christian profession ; that from Andovor 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 93 

and Princeton and the other high places of the church 
would go forth voices to cheer and comfort the holders 
of slaves ; that even the Golden Rule of the blessed 
Christ would be perverted by a New England Bishop 
to the service of slavery ; that hundreds of pulpits 
would venture to mix the Bible's " bitter texts " asranist 
oppression "with relish suited to the sinner's taste"; 
that presbyteries, synods, associations, conventions 
and other ecclesiastical assemblies, and even the mis- 
sionary bodies of the church, instead of pleading for 
the oppressed, wonld " daub with untempered mortar" 
in the service of the oppressor ; that slaveholding 
preachers would find ready and approved access to 
Northern pulpits, while ministers advocating emancipa- 
tion would be proscribed as fanatics ; that the holders 
of slaves would be admitted without objection to 
Northern communion-tables, which the neijro Christian 
could only approach as a ]:)ariah ; and that the religious 
press, with few exceptions, would lend itself to the 
service of slavery. How blind we w^ere to the fact 
that the Government, in every vein and artery, and 
even in its very heart, was poisoned by the insidious 
virus of slavery ; that the Constitution itself was fa- 
tally infected ; that our legislative, executive, judicial 
and diplomatic proceedings were largely under the 
sway of the slave power, ever watchful to advance its 
own interests ; that the political parties were bound 
hand and foot to the ponderous wheels of the modern 
juggernaut; and that our statesmen, while eager to 

. . . Send, -with lavish breath, 
Tlicir sympathies across tho wave, 

Where manbood, on the liebl of death, 
Struclc for bis freedoiu or a grave ; 

to plead warmly and eloquently 

For Greece, the Moslem fetter spurning, 
And Poland, gasping on her lance — 



94 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

would yet stand dumb before American slavery and its 
abominations, or open their mouths only to equivocate 
and palter and stultify themselves ! 

The lirst thin^a' that: the .new society did was to com- 
mission its Quaker president, Arnold BuiFnm, as a loc- 
turino' agent, with the understanding that he should 
collect his own small salary, and as much more as pos- 
sible. Mr. Builum was then in the prime^ of life, a 
man of excellent judgment, well versed in his subject, 
and Avithal a plea.sant and quite an efiective speaker. 
His Quaker dress and speech were accepted in some 
quarters as an adequate excuse for his Abolitionism, 
and so were an aid to him in his work. He had been 
in England but a few years before, and made the 
acquaintance of Clarkson, Wilberforcc and others of 
the anti-slavery leaders, from whose experience and 
instruction ho had gained some valuable lessons. In 
some quarters ho met Avith an encouraging reception, 
and succeeded in gathering fair audiences, that gave 
him respectful attention. Occasionally he found^ a 
clergyman willing to open a church or vestry to him 
without charge. In other places ho was able to pro- 
cure the use of a public hall at small expense. The op- 
position had not yet had time to organize itself, though 
public prejudice Avas in many places very strong, and 
the tone of the press far from friendly. In spite of many 
adverse influences, Mr. BufFum's lectures Avere a good 
beo-inning of the Avork that needed to be done. Ho 
fre'quentiy encountered the agents of the Colonization 
Society, never failing to give them battle as the chief 
apologists of slavery, AA^ho denounced immediate eman- 
cipation as fanaticism, and declared that slaves should 
be set free only upon condition of being exiled to Afri- 
ca. The populnrity of this Society arose from the fact 
that it humored the popular prejudice against the ne- 
gro as an inferior being, and did not claim for him the 
rights accorded to Avhite men. " Negro " then was al- 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 95 

most universally spelled with two g's, and with this 
ortho"*raphy it embodied a measure of contempt from 
which all manly and Christian sj'mpathy and all rever- 
ence for human nature were eliminated. If the slaves 
had been so many wild beasts, people could not more 
coolly, or with less consciousness of cruelty in so doing, 
have denied to them the rights of men. Indeed, it was 
almost universally assumed that they icere beasts in pas- 
sion and revenge, and, if set free, would cut the 
throats of their emancipators ! Slaves with white skins 
might be set free on the instant with perfect safety; 
but black slaves were so many wolves, held by the ears 
by their unfortunate masters, who could not let go with- 
out being devoured. The primary difference between 
the Abolitionists and their opponents lay in the fact 
that the former asserted, while the latter denied, tho 
perfect humanity of the negro. It was this that made 
the anti-slavery movement dangerous in the eyes of 
the slaveholders — this that commended the Coloniza- 
tion Society to their favor and support. Mr. Buffum, 
true-hearted Quaker that he was, understood this per- 
fectly, and therefore was able to strike effective blows. 
He was at once gentle and bold, cautious and faithful. 
He would not extenuate nor set down aught in malice. 

^' The gentle -words wbicli liunf:c 
Like a string of pearls from bis cautions lip, 
On their silver thread, he was fain to clip, 
Lest something more than the truth might slip, 

For once, from a Quaker's tongue." 

Such a man could not but exert a wholesome influ- 
ence in the face of even such prejudices as he was com- 
pelled to encounter. He might have accomplished 
still luore if the sect to which he belonged had given 
him its sympathy and support — nay, if it had not 
brou2:ht its stroni? social and ecclesiastical influences 
to bear against him. He became a mark for javelins 
stealthily hurled by false brethren. The Quaker sect, 



96 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

as such, was worshipping in the "house of Eimmon" 
like all the rest, its ears filled with cotton, its heart 
unresponsive to the cry of the slave. A- few tender- 
hearted and noble members of the society were true 
to its principles and traditions, and these espoused the 
cause with zeal ; but those who sat in high places and 
ruled the denomination discountenanced the movement, 
taking sides practically and effectively with the oppo- 
sition. Quaker meeting-houses, except in a few in- 
stances, were sternly closed against anti-slavery lec- 
turers, and members who attended anti-slavery meet- 
ings were often labored with as those who had strayed 
from the true path. The ground assumed by the lead- 
ers was that Quakers ought to keep by themselves and 
not mingle with "the world's people" in philanthropic 
work ; that the Abolitionists were not truly inspired, 
but attempting to abolisli slavery in their own strength, 
and that to pay men for lecturing against it was con- 
trary to the Quaker testimony against a " hireling min- 
istry." Talk like this was in many places the burden 
of Quaker preaching, and it was as eftectual in its in- 
fluence upon the sect as open defences and apologies 
for slavery were in other denominations. JBut Mr. 
BulFum, though he became of no reputation among his 
brethren, and though he felt this opposition and de- 
traction very keenly, never faltered for a moment, but 
held on his way until, in sul)sequent years, the sect 
would gladly have blotted out all traces of its unfriendly 
course toward him. Others, too, were equally faith- 
ful. How invaluable and inspiring were the songs 
Whittier poured forth, heedless of the dominant in- 
fluences of the society, I need not say. He began 
early and continued even unto the end, and since the 
days of George Fox no man has done more than he 
to commend Quaker principles to the admiration of 
the world, or reflected higher honor upon the Quaker 
name. The name of Whittier indeed is a bright star 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 97 

in the Quaker firmament, to which every member of 
the society now points with a pride that rebukes the 
cleireneracy of an earlier day. " ^yell, Perez, I hope 
thee's done running after the Abolitionists," said a 
high-seat Friend to one of his humbler brethren. 
"Verily, I have," said Perez ; "Pve caught up with and 
Cfonc just a little ahead of them." There were a goodly 
number of men like Perez, iu the society, after all. 

At the time when the New England Anti-Slavery 
Society was formed, the movement in Great Britain 
ao'ainst slaverv in the West Indies was ni^'h its culmi- 
nation. The whole kingdom was shaken by the elo- 
quence of Wilberforce, Brougham, O'Connell, Thomp- 
son and others. The English press was full of the 
subject ; but such was the power of slavery over the 
American press that the people here knew hardly more 
of the progress of the movement than they did of what 
was a'oinof on in the wilds of Africa. Some few ravs 
of liirht did now and then steal into American minds 
from that source, but they were not sufficient to pro- 
duce any wide illumination. American newspapers 
were afraid to print the truth lest it should help the 
Abolitionists, while the Abolitionists themselves, with 
their limited resources, were unable to give it any wide 
currency. Mr. Garrison was the recipient, now and 
then, of a batch of anti-slaver}^ publications from Eng- 
land, by which his own heart was cheered, and which 
he used for the benefit of the cause in this country. 
Well do I remember with what emotions I first read in 
" The Liberfitor," where it appeared for the first time 
in America, the following passage from a speech by 
Lord Brougham : — 

"Tell me not of rights — talk not of the property of the 
planter in his slaves. I den}' the right — I acknowledge not 
the property. The principles, the feelings of our common 
nature rise in rebellion against it. Be the appeal made to 
the understanding or the heart, the sentence is the same that 

13 



98 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

rejects it. In vain 3'on tell me of the laws that sanction 
such a claim ! There is a law above all the enactments of 
human codes — the same throughout the world, the same in 
all times — such it was before the daring genius of Co- 
lumbus pierced the night of ages, and opened to one world 
the sources of power, wealth and knowledge, to another all 
unutterable woes ; such as it is at this day. It is the law 
written by the finger of God on the heart of man ; and by 
that law, unchangeable and eternal, while men despise fraud, 
and loathe rapine, and abhor blood, they shall reject wiih 
indignation the wild and guilty fantasy that man can hold 
property in man." 

While the hearts of British citizens and Christians 
were stirred by appeals like this from statesmen of re- 
nown, and by orators, ministers and philanthropists of 
every sort, the statesmen and the divines of America 
were weaving defences and apologies for slavery out of 
the Bible and the Constitution, thus leading the coun- 
try toward the retribution that afterwards befel in the 
catastrophe of the Southern Rebellion. 



GAEKISON AND HIS TIMES. S9 



YI. 

ColorpLoljia Illustrated— Its Meanness and Cruelty —Doctors Gur- 
ley and Bacon — A Contrast — The Nat Turner lusurrection — 
Discussion in Virginia — Why it Failed to Accomiilish Anything 
— Power of Immediatism as a Principle. 

When it is remembered that the New England 
Anti-Slavery Society sought not only to free the 
slaves but to "improve the character and condition of 
the free people of color," it may seem strange that 
among those who took part in its formation there was 
not a single individual of the latter class. But the 
fact is easily exphiined. It was not from any lack of 
interest on their part in the movement, for they saw 
in it a bright star of promise for their race, and 
thanked Gotl for the sight. They had rallied, at least 
the most intelligent among them, to the support of 
"The Lil^erator," and were indulging in bright dreams 
of speedy deliverance from civil and social proscrip- 
tion. AVhy then were they not conspicuous among 
the formers of the new society ? It was because they 
instinctively knew that their presence and co-operation 
would serve only to increase and intensify the preju- 
dices which the society must encounter. Their very 
anxiety for its success kept them aloof at first. They 
were careful not to embarrass in its infancy a move- 
ment on which were staked their dearest hopes. An- 
glo-Saxon prejudice against the negro is strong even 
yet, but it is weak compared with what it was then. 
No man with a black skin could enter a Christian 
church without consenting to the degradation of the 
"nigger pew." He could not ride in any public con- 
veyance on terms of equality with others. A very 



100 GAPtPwISOJ^" AND HIS TIMES. 

intclliirent colored s^irl, the daui^bter of a devoted and 
useful clerg3^man of Boston, was suddenly summoned 
to the bedside of a dying relative in New Hampshire. 
A seat was bespoken for her in the stage, then tlie only 
means of pubUc conveyance ; but the driver, on com- 
ing to the door and finding that she was a negro, 
cracked his whip with an accompanying oath Jind 
drove off without her. A colored man of Boston, in 
trading w^ith a white man, became the owner of a pew 
in the central aisle of the Park Street Church, and, 
thinking he might be profited by the ministrations of 
an intelligent white minister, went to it one Sunday 
morning with his family. They listened to the "stated 
preaching of the Gospel" for once under the gaze of a 
whole battery of frowning faces ; but they were not 
permitted to enjoy the privilege a second time. The 
trustees of the church found some technicality by 
which to deprive the black man of his legal rights. 
Ilis appearance and that of his family in that fashiona- 
ble house of worship was accounted by all Boston as 
an outrage scarcely less flagrant than would have been 
the use of the pew as a pigpen. A colored merchant 
from Liberia, a man of intelligence as well as wealth, 
and highly esteemed by Colonizationists, being on a 
visit to Boston, took the opportunity of making the 
acquaintance of the Abolitionists. As he wished to 
hear Dr. Beecher preach, I invited him, as an act of 
courtesy to a distinguished foreigner, to take a seat in 
my pew. On my way out of church I encountered the 
indis^nant froAvns of a larc^e number of the consfreija- 
tion : but it w^as amusing to witness the change of coun- 
tenance that fell upon the advocates of colonization as I 

introduced to them " Mv. , of Liberia." They really 

seemed to think his odor was not quite so ofiensive, af- 
ter all, as they had suspected. The air of Liberia Avas 
such a powerful disinfectant ! The slaveholders used to 
think the atmosphere of their homes was perfectly de- 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 101 

lectable when slaves in kitchen, dining-room, parlor and 
boudoir were as all-pervading as flies ; but there was no 
odor so oflensive to them as that imparted to a "ne- 
gro" when he was set free ; and Northern people in 
the days of slavery, while they required the free negro 
to occupy a separate apartment on steamboat and rail- 
car, as being personally oflensive to white olfactories, 
never thought of remonstrating when the slaveholders 
(in the hot summer weather, too !) claimed for their 
slaves all the privileges of first-class travellers. 
Strange that in a republican country freedom was so 
oflensive, while slavery was so fragrant ! 

The meanness and cruelty of this hateful race prej- 
udice, as it was often manifested in that day, was 
simply indescribable. A bright colored lad belonging 
to my class in Sunday school, in 1831, said to me, 
sadly, in reply to my eflbrts to awaken in him an am- 
bition for self-improvement, "AYhat's the use in my 
attempting to improve myself, when, do what I may, 
lean never be anything but a nigger?" I tried to 
cheer this boy, to kindle some hope in his breast, by 
remindiun: him that a few 2:ood men were struo^glins^ 
to deliver him and his unfortunate race from their ter- 
rible surroundings ; and I am glad to say that he be- 
came an honorable and useful man, and during the 
later years of his life he was a faithful servant of the 
United States in the Post Oflice Department. In that 
day no colored boy could be apprenticed to any trade 
in any shop where white men worked ; still less could 
he find a place, except as a menial, in any store or 
oflice. I w^ell remember what amazement was excited 
when Mr. Garrison and his partner first took a black 
boy as an apprentice in the oflice of "The Liberator." 
It was declared on every side that no "nigger" could 
learn the art of printing, and it was held to be evi- 
dence of arrant folly to try the experiment. If the 
negroes, under such circumstances, sometimes seemed 



102 GARRISON" AKD HIS TIMES. 

dull and even stupid, who can wonder? What race or 
class of men is strong enough to keep its feet under 
such a load of jn-ejudice and contumely? The Avondcr 
is that the negroes bore it so patiently and cheerfully, 
keeping alive in their souls the hope of a better day to 
come, when the hearts of Christians should be purged 
from the foul spirit of caste. They could not have 
done it if God had not made them gentle, patient and 
forgiving above almost every other class of the human 
family. The worst of it all was that the prejudice was 
defended in pulpit and press as natural and therefore 
justifiable. The scheme of African colonization rested 
upon it as its corner-stone. If it had pleased God, in 
a night to give the slaves a white skin, every man in 
the United states would have arisen from his bed the 
next morning a flaming Abolitionist. No need of any 
colonies then, in Africa or elsewhere, and no danger that 
the slaves, if set free, would cut the throats of their 
masters. Every excuse and apology for slavery would 
have been instantly swept away, and no premium for a 
text of Scripture to support it would have been of any 
avail, for no theological professor would have dared in 
that case to torture the Bible, even for a reward. 

Mr. Garrison won the grateful confidence of the free 
colored people, not more by demanding the instant 
emancipation of the slaves than by his uncompromis- 
ing assaults upon the spirit of caste. In short, his 
recognition of the humanity of the negro was unquali- 
fied and complete, and he was firmly resolved to con- 
tent himself with nothing less than the admission of 
that, alike in principle and practice. lie made open 
war upon an old statute of Massachusetts inflicting a 
fine of $50 upon any person who should join in mar- 
riage any white person with any negro, Indian or 
mulatto. He saw that this statute set a stigma upon 
the negro, and therefore demanded its repeal. Ter- 
haps of all his acts' this was for a time the most unpop- 



GARPwISON AND HIS TIMES. 103 

ular. The press poured upon it unmeasured ridicule 
and scorn, denouncing him as an " amalgamationist," 
and in the Legislature the petitions for repeal were at 
first treated with contempt. But every year they were 
repeated, until at last reason prevailed, and the obnox- 
ious statute w\as repealed. Upon this question he 
w^ould not equivocate, he would not excuse, he would 
not retreat a single inch, and his voice w^as finally 
heard and obeyed. It was this uncompromising spirit, 
this absolute devotion to principle, that distinguished 
him above other men, and made his infliuence so irre- 
sistible. How^ surely, even if slowly, does the world 
yield to the might of such a man ! The tides obey 
the moon no more implicitly — the law of gravitation 
is not more certain in its operation. 

" Men of a thousand shifts and wiles, look here ! 

See one straightforward conscience put in pawn 
To win a world ! See the obedient sphere 
By bravery's simple gravitation drawn ! " 

If there was among the colored people at first some 
distrust of the new movement, we need not wonder, 
since they had so often found themselves deceived by 
the spurious professions and promises of white men. 
The Colonization Society was even then exerting its 
influence, under spurious professions of friendliness 
toward them, to make their lot harder, and to compel 
them to take their choice between permanent degrada- 
tion in their own country and exile to the inhospitable 
shores of barbarous Africa. " The African Repository," 
the organ of that society, declared: "The habits, the 
feelings, the prejudices of society — prejudices which 
neither refinement, nor argument, nor education, nor 
religion itself can subdue — mark the people of color, 
whether bond or free, as the subjects of a degradation 
inevitable and incurable. The African in tliis country 
belongs by birth to the very lowest station in society, 
and from that station he can never rise, be his talents, 



104 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

his enterprise, his virtues what they may. Here, 
therefore, they must be forever debased ; more than 
this, they must be forever useless ; more even tlian 
this, they must be forever a nuisance, from whidi 
it were a blessing for society to be rid." These words, 
so insulting to tlie very spirit of Christianity, and so 
full of baldest atheism, were written by a clergyman 
educated in New England, the Rev. Ralph Randolph 
Gurley, Secretary of the American Colonization Soci- 
ety ; and what is still worse, they expressed the senti- 
ments of a vast majority of Northern Christians. The 
Rev. Dr. Leonard Bacon, of New Haven, then the 
leading champion of Colonization in New England, 
described the negro population of the country in "The 
Christian Spectator" — a magazine of large influence — 
as a class "which, even if it were not literally enslaved, 
must forever remain in a state of degradation no better 
than bondage. Here a slave cannot be really emanci- 
pated. Yon cannot raise him from the abyss of his 
degradation. You may call him free, you may enact 
a statute-book of laws to make him free, but you can- 
not bleach him into the enjoyment of freedom." It 
was just as natural as breathing that the man who 
thought there was no power in Christianity to over- 
come complexional and race prejudices, should be an 
apologist for slavery ; and so we need not be surprised 
to tinVl Dr. Bacon^aying : "The Bible contains no 
explicit prohibition of slavery. There is neither 
chapter nor verse of Holy Writ wdiich lends any coun- 
tenance to the fulminating spirit of universal emanci- 
pation, of which some exhibitions may be seen in some 
of the newspapers." What then did Isaiah mean when 
he told the people of Israel to "break every yoke," 
and "let the oppressed go free"? And what did Jesus 
mean when he said lie had been anointed to " preach 
deliverance to the captives, and to set at liberty them 
that are bruised " ? Were expressions like these in- 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 105 

tended to suggest the duty of ca distant and gradual 
breaking of the fetters of the enslaved, and to stigma- 
tize as fanatical "fulminations" the demands for imme- 
diate emancipation? 

Let no one suppose that I cite these utterances of 
Dr. Gurley and Dr. Bacon for any personal reason 
whatever. I might fill whole pages with similar ex- 
tracts from the leading divines and statesmen of that 
day. Dr. Bacon, then a young man of ripe culture 
and highest promise, simply spoke the prevailing sen- 
tim,ent"of the time — a sentiment which he afterward 
unlearned and repudiated. I am simply trying to 
make clear to my readers of the present generation the 
darkness, ignorance and moral degeneracy against 
which the early Abolitionists had to contend. There 
are those who, in the fancied interest oF Christianity, 
would cover up these ugly blotches upon the escutch- 
eon of the American church and clergy, and lead pos- 
terity to the conclusion that it was the so-called ftmati- 
cism and infidelity of the Abolitionists that repelled 
Christian sympathy and support. As God is just, all 
such attempts will be vain. The ugly facts cannot be 
concealed, and they ought not to be if they could. 
Like the words written upon the Avail of Belshazzar's 
palace, they should be emblazoned in history as a 
warning to men and nations in all coming time to obey 
the voice of God and respect the rights of human 
nature ; and, still further, as a warning that the true 
^ character of Christianity is to be sought, not in the 
churches bearing the name while they are false to the 
spirit of the Master, but in His own life and teachings, 
now and evermore. Let God and Christ be true, 
though all men are condemned as liars ! 

In" contrast whh the atheistic postulate cited above, 
that Christianity could do nothing for the negro in 
America, and that Providence had doomed him to in- 
evitable degradation so long as he should fooUshly 



14 



106 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

persist in sharini^ the advantages and blessings of our 
glorious republic, let me quote a few sentences from 
Mr. Garrison. Iveferring to the very passages above 
quoted, and to others of a simihir character, Mr. Gar- 
rison, writing in 1832, said : — 

"Search the records of heathenism, and sentiments more 
hostile to the spirit of the Gospel, or of a more black and 
blasphemous complexion than these, cannot be fonnd. I 
believe that they are libels upon the character of my 
countrymen, which time will wipe off. I call upon the spirits 
of the just made perfect in heaven, upon all who liave expe- 
rienced the love of God in their souls here below, upon the 
Christian converts in India and the islands of the sea, to 
sustain me in the assertion that there is power enough in the 
religion of Jesus Christ to melt down the most stubborn 
prejudices, to overthrow the highest walls of partition, to 
break the strongest caste, to improve and elevate the 
most degraded, to unite in fellowship the most hostile, and 
to equalize and bless all its recipients. JNIakc mo sure that 
there is not, and I will give it ui), now and forever. 

'' My countrymen ! are you willing to be held upas t}'- 
rants and hypocrites forever? as less magnanimous and just 
than the poi)ulation of Europe ? No — no ! I cannot give 
you up as incorrigibly wicked, nor my country as sealed over 
to destruction. My confidence remtiins like the oak — like 
the Alps — unshaken, storm-proof. I am not discouraged ; I 
am not distrustful. I still place an unwavering rehance 
upon the omnipotence of truth. I still believe that the de- 
mands of justice will be satisfied ; that the voice of bleeding 
humanity will melt the most obdurate hf^art ; and that the 
land will be redeemed and regenerated by an enligliteuL'd 
and energetic public opinion. As long as there remains 
among us a single copy of the Declaration of Independence, 
or of the New Testament, I will not despair of the social 
and political elevation of my black countiymen." 

Let the reader compare these words of Garrison 
with those of Doctors Gurley and Bacon, and judge 
for himself Avhcther the latter or the former accord 
most perfectly with the spirit of Christianity. 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 107 

I have iilrcady alluded to the Nat Turner insurroc- 
tiou of August, 1831 ; but I mention it again to call 
attention to the great debate to which it led in the Vir- 
ginia Legislature, in the session of 1831-2. That de- 
bate Avas remarkable for the confessions it elicited as 
to the character and the cruel Avrongs of slavery, and 
for the utter moral helplessness in dealing Avith it ex- 
hibited by the leading men of the State. Nothing that 
Garrison had said or could say of the evils of slavery 
exceeded what slaveholders themselves confessed in the 
course of this debate. Mr. Broadnax, forsfettinic that 
the people of Virginia had brought it upon themselves 
in defiance of God's law, described it as the "greatest 
curse that God in his wrath ever inflicted upon a peo- 
ple." Mr. Boiling said it was "the bane of our happi- 
ness, the most pernicious of all the evils wath which 
the body politic can be afllicted." Mr. Chandler de- 
clared it to be " the greatest curse that has ever been 
inflicted upon the State." Mr. Mooro said it was "the 
severest calamity that has ever befallen any portion of 
the human race," and that "its irresistible tendency 
was to undermine and destroy everything like virtue 
and morality in the coramanity." ]Mr. Faulkner spoke 
of it as "that l)itterest drop from the chalice of the 
destro3'ing angel," and said the country was "groaning 
under the heaviest and blackest curse that ever afllicted 
freemen." Mr. Summers wished "to arrest the deso- 
lating scourge of our country, to save after ages from 
the accumulated ills of a then hopeless and remediless 
disease." Mr. Berry said it was "a cancer on the 
body politic, as certain, steady and fatal in its progress 
as any cancer on the physical system ; " and Mr. Mc- 
Dowell, afterwards Governor of the State, said it was 
"not the fear of Nat Turner and his deluded, drunken 
handful of followers " that had so excited the people 
— "it was the suspicion eternally attached to the slave 
himself — a suspicion that a Nat Turner might be in 



108 GAKRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

every family, that the same bloody deed might be acted 
over at any time and in any place, that the materials 
for it Avere si)read throngh the hind, and were always 
ready for a like explosion." 

It is imi:>ossible to doubt the sincerity of these men. 
They lived in the midst of slavery, most of them were 
shiveholders, and they all saw and felt how dangerous 
the system w\as, and how destructive of the very foun- 
dations of morality and prosperity. Why then did they 
not attack it boldly and insist upon its immediate al)o- 
lition? It Avas because they were under the delusion, 
common in that day, and from which only a few Abo- 
litionists had just been delivered, that, bad as slavery 
was, immediate emancipation would be worse; that 
the slaves, on being set free, would turn in vengeance 
upon the masters and give themselves up to riot and 
bloodshed. This delusion was long an absolute pro- 
tection of slavery in communities Avhere the slaves were 
numerous and where its strongest opponents dared not 
so much as hint its absolute sinfulness, or propose any 
other than an exceedingly gradual plan of emancipa- 
tion. With what power these Virginians Avould have 
been clothed, if, seeing the terrible injustice of slavery 
and the dangers attending it, they had also seen Avith 
equal clearness that it would be perfectly safe to set 
every slave instantly free ! But they Avere Aveak as 
AA'ater, Avhile the champions of slavery, for the time- 
being, had all the advantages of a fortitied position. 
If the former had been as Avilling to have " the Avay of 
God expounded more perfectly unto them" by Garri- 
son and Elizabeth lleyrick as the Jew Apollos Avas to 
learn of Aquila and Priscilla, they might have demol- 
ished the fortilications of the slaveholders and beaten 
them on the open field ; instead of which they Avere 
themselves utterly routed and silenced, and A^irginia 
thenceforth bound hand and foot by the Slave Power, 
and given over to Avork the " iniquity " of slavery and 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 109 

the domestic slave-trade " Avith greediness." The men 
Avho had dared to assail slavery, and who afterward 
aspired to public station, were compelled to eat their 
own words, and thus descend to the same level Avith 
those who openly declared, with Mr. Gholson, that 
" the right of the slaveholder to his female slaves and 
their increase, was the same as that to his brood mares 
and their products." 

To this vulgar complexion it came at last, and the 
State of Washington and Jefferson was not ashamed 
to owe her wealth chiefly to the profits derived from 
the sale of slaves, deliberately raised for the market 
like so many colts and calves ! If Garrison's plea for 
immediate emancipation had been taken up and en- 
forced by the Northern church and pulpit, the "mother 
of Presidents " miijht 'have been saved from this desfra- 
dation, and the freedom of the slaves assured without 
the bloody arbitrament of a war that filled the land 
Avith mourning and woe. Never in all history Avas 
there another delusion so preposterous and absurd as 
that AA'hich affirmed that it Avas dangerous to free the 
slaves from their bonds. Not only AA'as the dehision 
contrary to common sense, and a libel upon human 
nature and God, but its foolishness had been demon- 
strated again and again by actual experiment, as it Avas 
three years later by the results of emancipation in the 
British West Indies. If jMr. Garrison, like his prede- 
cessors in the cause, had been a gradualist, attributing 
the sin of slavery (as the llev. Dr. Leonard Bacon did ) 
to "those and those only Avhobore a part in originating 
such a constitution of societA'," and assio-nina* the duty 
of emancipation to distant generations, he Avould have 
been as poAverless as those beAvildered denouncers of 
slavery in the Viririnia Leofislature, and his movement 
A\ ould have come to naught. A good general is care- 
ful in selecting the ground upon Avhich to fight the 
enemy ; above all he avoids placing his army in a quag- 



110 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

mire, where it can have no sound footing. The same 
principle is as important in moral as in physical war- 
fare, and Garrison Avas Aviser than his generation in 
that he saw that gradualism Avas a slough in Avhich 
many a AA'ell-meaning band of reformers had been sAval- 
loAved up, and that it Avould be useless to assail slavery 
on any other ground than that of its utter sinfulness 
and the duty of every slaveholder instantly to emanci- 
pate his slaves. God's laAV of eternal justice and right- 
eousness must be uplifted and honored, and men must 
be m:ide to understand the folly and Avickedness of the 
assumption that obedience to that hiAv is not safe. 
To attempt to abolish slavery while one's OAvn mouth 
was tilled Avith apologies for it as a system for AAhich 
the generation then upon the stage was in no way re- 
sponsible, and from which there was no way of present 
escape, Avould be idle. 

It Avas the doctrine of immediate emancipation that 
imbued Garrison's arm Avith strength, and that made 
all the ditierence betAveen success and failure in the 
movement he organized. As Wendell Phillips, stand- 
ing over his coffin, said : "He seems to have under- 
stood—this boy Avithout experience — he seems to have 
understood by instinct that righteousness is the only 
thing Avhich AA'ill finally compel submission ; that one, 
Avith God, is always a majority. lie seems to have 
known at the very outset, taught of God, the herald 
and champion, God-endoAved and God-sent to arouse a 
nation, that only by the most absolute assertion of the 
uttermost truth, Avithout qualification or compromise, 
can a nation be Avaked to conscience or strengthened 
for duty." ^ 

It Avas the custom in that day to inveigh against im- 
mediatism as '' impracticable." "You cannot," said our 
opponents, " emancipate all the slaves at once; Avhy, 
then, do you propose so impossible a scheme?" Our 
reply Avas, that slaveholding being a s4n, instant eman- 



GAKRISON AND HIS TIMES. Ill 

cipation was the right of every shivc and the duty of 
every master. The fact that the slaveholders were not 
ready at once to obey the demands of justice and the 
requirements of the Divine Law miUtated not against 
the soundness of the doctrine of immediatism or ai]:ainst 
its power as a practical working principle. The 
minister of the Gospel does not cease to proclaim the 
duty of immediate repentance for sin because he knows 
that his message will not be immediately heeded. 
It is his duty to contend for sound principles, whether 
his auditors "will hear or forbear." He dares not ad- 
vise or encourage them to delay repentance for a sin- 
gle hour, though he knows that in all probability many 
of them will do so until their dying day. 

The fanaticism of the Abolitionists consisted in ap- 
plying to the sin of slavery the general princi[)le 
which they had learned from the American pulpit. 
There was no impracticability in the scheme of imme- 
diate emancipation save that which arose from the de- 
termination of the slaveholders to persist in their sin, 
and from the encouragement they received at the hands 
of men who made themselves partakers in their ini- 
quity. Even at this day, after all the light shed upon 
the subject from the results of emanciipation in the 
West Indies, and in the face of the recorded testimony 
of Clarkson and Will)erforce, Brougham and O'Connell, 
and other eminent philanthropists, there are men of 
eminence in the church who pronounce immediate 
emancipation "a fantastic abstraction," and seek to cast 
reproach upon American Abolitionists for advocating a 
doctrine so wild and impracticable. But the slave- 
holders, who had seen many a scheme of gradualism 
come to naught, knew right well that the voice of Gar- 
rison, pleading for the right of ever}'- slave to instant 
freedom, would, unless it could be silenced, prove the 
knell of their hateful system. 



112 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 



YII. 

Battle with tho Colonization Society — Garrison's "Thoughts" — 
An ludictmeut with Ten Counts — Discussion — Mr. Garrison 
gives tho Colored People a Hearing — Attempt to Found a Negro 
College in New Haven — Tho Town Thrown into an Uproar — 
The Project Defeated — The Canterbury Disgrace — Tho Burleigh 
Brothers — Why Windham County is liepublican. 

Mr. Garrison, when he joined Lundy in Baltimore, 
vi-ns a mild Coloiiizationist. Without investigating the 
subject for himself, he took it for granted that a 
scheme so earnestly supported by many of the best 
people in the country was worthy of encouragement ; 
and in his Fourth of July address in Park Street 
Church, Boston, in 1829, he commended it in a few 
words Avhich showed clearly enough that he did not 
regard it as a remedy for slavery. The friends of Col- 
onization indeed were dissatistied with liis address. 
Loth for its uncompromising denunciations of slavery 
and its lack of zeal in their favorite enterprise. Hav- 
ing consecrated his life to the work of emancipation, 
he naturally sought the acquaintance and s^'mpathy of 
the free colored people, among whom he was glad to 
find some men of intelligence, good judgment and high 
moral worth. He was astonished to find that, without 
exception, they regarded the Colonization Society with 
feelings of strong aversion and abhorrence. They 
held it to l)e a cunninor device of Southern men to 
avert some of the dangers that threatened the exist- 
ence of slavery, and regarded as an aliVont to them- 
selves the intimation that they were something less 
than citizens of the United States, and must consent to 
be deported to barbarous Africa in order to enjoy their 



I 



GAPwKISOX AND HIS TIMES. 113 

rio-hts. Mr. Garrison was at first inclined to remon- 
strate with them as the victims of a mistaken prejudice, 
but he soon found that they had studied the question, 
while he was ignorant of its bearings and consequences. 
They had read the reports of tiie Colonization Society 
and the speeches of its Southern as well as its North- 
ern champions, and knew that the scheme rested upon 
the hateful spirit of caste as its chief corner-stone. Mr. 
Garrison, finding himself worsted in the argument by 
his colored friends, resolved to investigate the su])ject 
for himself, lie procured the annual reports of the 
American Colonization Society, together ^^kh files of 
its organ, "The African Repository, " and copies of nu- 
merous pamphlets, ofiicial or friendly, and set himself 
to the task of examining them. He found that his 
colored friends had not in any respect misrepresented 
or misunderstood the society — that the case was even 
worse than they had represented it. In " The Genius 
of Universal Emancipation " he revicAved some of 
Henry Clay's Colonization speeches and writings, and 
it is creditable to the latter that this did not hinder him 
from entertaining, cordially and promptly, ]Mr. AVhit- 
tier's proposition that he should pay the fine of his 
critic and release him from the Baltimore jail. 

On returning to New England, after his imprison- 
ment, he found that every little rill of honest sympa- 
thy for the negro, whether bond or free, had been 
made tributary to the Colonization scheme ; the agents 
of which at the North presented it as the only practi- 
cable remedy for slavery, while they denounced imme- 
diate emancipation as the wildest fanaticism. The 
good people of the North, in their blind credulity, had 
given the Colonization Society a place in their sympa- 
thies side by side with the Bible, missionary and tract 
societies, and flattered themselves that in supporting it 
they were doing all that was practicable for the aboli- 
tion of slavery. It was easy to persuade them that 

15 



114 GARRISON AND HIS TEVIES. 

every attack upon this society and its scheme was 
aimed at the Avhole family of benevolent and charitable 
associations Avhich had become entrenched in the afiec- 
tion and confidence of the churches as the agencies 
api)oiiited of God for the conversion of the world. 
Behind this society as a rampart the apologists for 
slavery entrenched themselves, hurling the deadliest 
missiles at the heads of the Abolitionists. In these 
circumstances Mr. Garrison was inexorably compelled 
to justify his impeachment of the Colonization scheme, 
to tear the mask from its brow and show it up in its 
true colors, in the light of its own official documents. 
Havinsr enlar^fed "The Liberator" at the beo^inninjx of 
the year 1832, and finding himself supported and 
cheered by an organized society, he addressed himself 
to this task with a courage that no opposition could 
subdue, and performed it with a thoroughness that 
made any further demonstration unnecessary. The 
result of his labors was seen in a bulky pamphlet, that 
came from the press in the spring, entitled " Thoughts 
on African Colonization ; or, an Impartial Exhibition 
of the Doctrines, Principles and Purposes of the 
American Colonization Society ; together with the 
Resolutions, Addresses and Remonstrances of the 
Free People of Color." As a compilation of facts and 
authorities it was unanswerable and overwhelming. It 
condemned the Colonization Society out of its own 
mouth, and by a weight of evidence that was irresisti- 
ble. There was just enough of comment to elucidate 
the testimony from official sources and bring it within 
the comprehension of the simplest reader. His indict- 
ment contained ten averments, viz. : 1. The American 
Colonization Society is pledged not to oppose the sys- 
tem of slavery ; 2. It apologizes for slavery and slave- 
holders ; 3. It recognizes slaves as property; 4. It 
increases the value of slaves ; 5. It is the enemy of 
immediate abolition ; 6. It ^'=^ nourished b'^ fear nnd 



GArtRISON AND HIS TIMES. 115 

solfisliness ; 7. It aims at the utter expulsion of the 
blacks ; 8. It is the disparager of the free blacks ; 9. 
It denies the possibility of elevatiiii>' the blacks in this 
country ; 10. It deceives and misleads the Nation. 
Each of these averments was supported by pages of 
citations from the annual reports of the society, from 
the pages of its official organ, "The African Eeposi- 
tory," and from the speeches of its leading champions 
in all parts of the country. It was impossible to set 
this evidence aside, and equally so to resist the conclu- 
sions drawn therefrom. The work could not be, and 
therefore was not answered. There were nibblings, 
carpings and casuistical perversions, but nothiug that 
deserved or even claimed the character of a reply. It 
did not indeed kill the Colonization Society, which was 
founded upon caste and drew the breath of life from 
the fetid atmosphere of slavery ; but it smote it with a 
paralysis from which it never recovered, and sent it far 
to the rear of the benevolent associations to whose 
goodly fellowship it had unworthily aspired. Hun- 
dreds of ministers, who still hesitated to join the anti- 
slavery movement, thenceforth gave no further support 
to the Colonization scheme, feeliug that they had been 
deceived as to its character and designs, and that the 
claim of some of its advocates that it was a practical 
remedy for slavery was either a delusion or an impos- 
ture. Only the blindest and most obstinate apologists 
for slavery thereafter lent it their support ; but this 
was a numerous, wealthy and influential class, so that 
the treasurer's report still showed a large footing of 
receipts. 

Just before the appearance of Mr. Garrison's 
"Thoughts," the American Colonization Society, tak- 
ing alarm from his assaults in " The Liberator," and 
from the organization of the New England Anti-Slav- 
ery Society, sent to Massachusetts a Congregational 
clergyman, the Rev. Joshua N. Danforth, charged with 



116 GAEiaSOX AND IIIS TIMES. 

the duty of defending the Colonization scheme and re- 
sisting the progress of the ahohtion movement. The 
Board of JManagers of the Anti-Slavery Society 
i:)romptly challenged him to a public discussion with 
its i^resident, and took upon itself the responsibility 
of providing a hall for the purpose. But ^Ir. Dan- 
forth was too discreet to expose himself to the fire of 
our Quaker artilleiy. For four evenings the hall was 
kept open, but only a squad of irresponsible advocates 
of Colonization entered the lists. On one occasion, 
however, he did venture to attend a lecture of Mr. 
BulTum's, at Northampton, and, in response to the lat- 
ter's courteous invitation, he made a speech sneering 
at Mr. Garrison as one for whose head a reward had 
been offered by a Southern Legislature, at Mr. Buff urn 
as " nothing but a hatter," and at the officers of the 
Anti-Slavery Society generally as too insignificant for 
notice. The good Quaker reminded the vain clergy- 
man that this was not the first instance in which God 
had chosen the weak thins^s of the world to confound 
the might}^ ; that there was a story in an old-fashioned 
book of twelve poor, illiterate fishermen taking the 
lead in an enterprise upon which the Orthodox Scribes, 
Pharisees and priests contemptuously frowned. He 
reminded him also that if the Abolitionists were dis- 
posed to rest the merits of their cause upon the repu- 
tation of its champions, they might point Avith pride 
to the names of Brougham, Clarkson, Wilberforce, 
Buxton, Cropper, Allen, O'Connell, and a score of 
others hardly less eminent. Mr. Danforth had sneered 
at him (Mr. Buffinn) as "a hatter," but he had read in 
the old-fashioned book above referred to of one Avho 
was despised and rejected of men, hissed at, spit upon 
and called the son of a carpenter, but who yet was the 
Son of God and the Saviour of the world. Paul was 
a tent-maker, Franklin a printer, Boger Sherman a 
shoemaker, and John Bunyan a tinker ; but each of 



GARRISON AXD HIS TIMES. 117 

these men had done a work in the world ns important, 
perhaps, as that of any agent of the Colonization So- 
ciety. But Mr. Danforth persisted in thinking it a 
very clever device on his part to contrast the names of 
the statesmen and divines who indorsed the Coloniza- 
tion Society with those of "the nobodies who led the 
movement for immediate abolition." However weak 
his arguments might be, this was sure to bring down 
the house, when there was no opportunity for repl}^ ! 
The scheme of Colonization was urged, professedly, 
in the interest and for the benefit of the free colored 
people, but strangely enough, they Avere never con- 
sulted, nor Avere their opinions and feelings treated 
with the least respect. Indeed, the champions of the 
scheme no more thought of consulting their so-called 
beneficiaries than Mr. Bergh thinks of consulting the 
horses, dogs and cats which he is trying to protect 
from the cruelty of man. The utterance of an unfav- 
orable opinion on their part was held to be an imperti- 
nence. What right had "niggers" to question the 
schemes of their benefactors, or to set up their opinions 
in opposition to those of the noble white men who pro- 
posed to send them from a civilized to a barbarous 
land? 

"Theirs not to reason why, 
Theirs not to make reply, 
Theii-s but to " go " and die ! " 

From the first organization of the society, in 1816, 
they cried out against the scheme as a piece of heart- 
less injustice and cruelty ; but their protest was treated 
with contempt, and the society went on in its crusade 
against them, treating tiiem as outcasts and pariahs, "a 
greater nuisance than the slaves themselves," and 
" scarcely reached in their debasement by the heavenly 
light." ( Vide " The African Repository.") Is it any 
wonder that the people thus proscribed and trodden 
down took heart of grace from the appearance in the 



118 GARRISON AND HIS TEMES. 

field of a cliami)ion T\'ho recognized their complete liu- 
nianity and their right to a hearing upon tlic question 
whether or not they deserved to be expatriated from 
their native land ? True, the Colonization Society pro- 
posed to send them away " with their own consent ;" 
bnt what a mocker}^ that was when this "consent" was 
to be extorted by denouncing them as nuisances, unfit 
to live in the land of their birth, and b}^ visiting them 
with every form of proscription, political and social, 
that could be devised by the spirit of caste ! Mr. 
Garrison for the first time <2:ave these dowu-trodden 
people a hearing before the American people. He col- 
lected their protests from the difterent parts of the 
country — from New York, Phihidelphia, Baltimore, 
Boston, Hartford, Providence, and from wherever else 
any considerable body of the class resided — and 
allowed them to speak in their own language ; and 
verily, if his work had contained nothing else, this 
ought to have sufiiced to settle the question. 

Mr. Garrison, at every step in the controversy, was 
careful, as far as possible, not to impeach the motives 
of the good men who had been deluded by the spuri- 
ous pretences of the Colonization Societj^ and not less 
so to make his appeal to the Christian sentiment of the 
country. In one place he says ; " I address myself to 
high-minded and honorable men, whose heads and 
hearts are susceptible to sound logic. I appeal to those 
who have been redeemed from the bondage of sin by 
the precious blood of Christ, and with Avliom I liope 
to unite in a better world in ascribing glory and honor 
and praise to the Great Deliverer. If I can succeed in 
gaining their attention, I feel sure of convincing their 
understanding and securing their support." The w^ork 
throughout is pervaded by a Christian spirit, and shows 
that its author was inspired by a faith in God such as 
has been rarely witnessed among men. Here is a pro- 
phetic passage that illustrates this : — 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 119 

" It is the purpose of God, I am fully persuaded, to hum- 
ble the pride of the American people by rendering the ex- 
pulsion of our colored countrymen utterly impracticable, 
and the necessity for their admission to equal rights impera- 
tive. As neither mountains of prejudice, nor the massive 
shackles of law and of public opinion, have been able to 
keep them down to a level with the slaves, I confidently antic- 
ipate their exaltation among ourselves. Through the vista 
of time — a short distance only — I see them here, not in 
Africa, not bowed to the earth or derided and persecuted as 
at present, not with a downcast air or an irresolute step, but 
standing erect as men destined heavenward, unembarrassed, 
untrammelled, with none to molest or make them afraid." 

If the man, v^lio, in the thick darkness that envel- 
oped this nation forty-seven years a^o, was able to 
utter this prophecy, was not taught of God, from what 
other source did the heavenly light stream into his 
soul ? And if the churches of America had received 
his message and followed that light, Avould they not 
now find their record stained by fewer blots, at sight 
of which they are constrained to blush ? 

The Abolitionists, from the very beginning, recog- 
nized the duty of devising some means for the educa- 
tion of colored youth. The schools, academies, uni- 
versities and colleges of the land were, with hardly an 
exception, rigidly closed against pupils of African de- 
scent, and there Avas only too much reason to fear that 
many children of this class would grow up in igno- 
rance, vice and crime, unless some sort of educational 
institutions Avere provided for their immediate benefit. 
Mr. Garrisons attention was called to this sul)ject 
while he was in Baltimore, and it was a frequent topic 
of conversation between himself and some of the most 
intelligent colored citizens of that place. When he 
visited New Haven after his release from the Baltimore 
jail, the Rev. Simeon S. Jocelyn, wdiose death at the 
ripe age of eighty years occurred only a short time 
since, was the white pastor of a colored people's church 



120 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

in that city. INIr. Garrison naturally sought his ac- 
quaintance, and was happy to lincl in him a man after 
his own heart, devoted to the welfare of the colored 
people, and ready to co-operate in any feasible plan for 
their improvement. He had no faith in the Coloniza- 
tion scheme, and was ready to espouse the doctrine of 
immediate emancipation the moment it was fairly pre- 
sented to his mind. So far as I know, he was the lirst 
white man to conceive the idea of founding in this 
country a college for negroes, and for what he did and 
suflered in this cause, as well as for his anti-slavery 
labors generally, he deserves honorable mention in these 
sketches. INIr. Arthur Tappan, to whom Mr. Garri- 
son was indebted for his release from prison, was also 
deeply interested in the proposed college, and offered 
to be one of ten persons to contribute $1,000 each 
toward the object. To insure the success of the enter- 
prise, it was deemed important that the colored people 
themselves should co-operate therein ; and, as they were 
to hold a National Convention in Philadelphia in June, 
1831, Mr. Garrison, Mr. Jocelyn and Mr. Tappan 
agreed to meet there for the purpose of laying the sub- 
ject before them. They were very cordially received, 
and by invitation addressed the convention. INIr. 
Jocelyn, in his enthusiasm, had concluded that New 
Haven was the best place for the college, and was full of 
hoi)e that the enterprise would command the cordial 
and earnest support of the people of that city and of 
the trustees and faculty of Yale. He had even selected 
a site for the college buildings — "the most beautiful 
spot," says Mr. Garrison, "I have ever seen. No 
other part of New Haven compares with it." They 
proposed, in their wisdom, that the institution should 
not be identified in any way with the new movement 
for the abolition of slavery, but stand upon its own 
merits and make its appeal to intelligent, upright and 
humane men of every class, party and sect. The idea 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 121 

was that even those who were not prepared to promote 
a scheme for the immediate emancipation of the slaves 
would yet readily unite in an effort to improve the 
character and condition of colored people already free. 

The convention embraced some men of more than 
ordinary intelligence and worth — men who in a white 
convention would have won distinction for ability, 
thoughtfulness and dignity. By these the proposal to 
found a college was enthusiastically received, and, after 
a day spent in debate, the project was unanimously ap- 
proved, and the Rev. Samuel E. Cornish, a colored 
Presbyterian, of New York, was appointed an agent 
for the collection of funds. The matter was confided 
to a committee, consisting of the venerable James For- 
ten, Joseph Cassey, Robert Douglass, Robert Purvis 
and Frederick A. Hinton, all of Philadelphia, and men 
of recognized mark and influence among the people of 
their class. The plan was for the colored people them- 
selves to raise $10,000, and to collect an equal sum 
from white people. It was proposed to call the insti- 
tution "A Collegiate School on the Manual Labor 
Plan," and the funds to be collected were to be depos- 
ited in the United States Bank, to the credit of Arthur 
Tappan. The committee obtained a rather cold en- 
dorsement of the plan by the venerable Bishop White, 
and his assistant. Bishop H. U. Onderdonk. It was 
also commended by the Rev. G. T. Bedell, afterward 
Bishop of Ohio, and by the Rev. Drs. Thomas McAuley 
and Ezra Stiles Ely, men of mark in the Presbyterian 
church. 

Against a scheme so noble in its purpose, and so 
carefully and prudently devised, what could be said? 
Was it not rational to expect that Christians of every 
denomination, and the friends of education especially, 
would give it a cordial support ? Who could have an- 
ticipated that the people of New England, proud as 
they were of their schools, academies and colleges, 



122 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

would take offence at this effort to uplift an unfortu- 
nate and down-trodden class of American citizens? 
Who could have deemed it possible that churches call- 
ino^ themselves Christian, and that were full of zeal to 
establish schools in heathen nations, would treat with 
contempt, indifference or hostility this effort to provide 
the means of education for a large number of children 
growing up in ignorance in their very midst ? Yet it 
was even so. If the proposal had been to establish an 
institution for the propagation of leprosy, small-pox 
or yellow fever, it could hardly have been scouted with 
a fiercer indignation or resisted with a more vehement 
energy. On every side was heard the exclamation, 
" We don't want any negro colleges in America ; 
send them back to their own country." It was not 
alone in places of low resort or among the ignorant 
and degraded classes of society that this hateful spirit 
of caste prevailed ; it broke out like a leprosy in "good 
society," and even in the Christian churches. The 
Eichmond " Religious Telegraph," edited by the Eev. 
A. Converse, a recreant son of New England, and a 
graduate of Dartmouth College, published, with edito- 
rial commendation, an argument to justify the keeping 
of the slaves in ignorance, on the ground that it would 
be "highly inexpedient, and even dangerous to the 
peace of the community, to teach them to read and 
write " ; while in regard to the free people of color, 
the editor declared in so many words : " If they were 
taught to read it might be an inducement to them to 
remain in the country. We would offer them no such 
inducement." When I add that the article in which these 
views were urged was copied sympathetically, without 
a word of comment or protest, in " The Boston Re- 
corder," the expositor of New England orthodoxy, and 
when it is remembered that this was the very spirit of 
colonization, by which the Northern churches had be- 
come so extensively infected, no one at this day need 



5 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 123 

wonder at the hostility evoked by the proposal to found 
a collesfiate school for the instruction of nes^ro children. 
The only wonder is that Mr. Garrison and his asso- 
ciates, after the exhibitions they had witnessed of the 
spirit of caste, were so simple as to imagine that their 
plan was feasible. But they were very slow to be con- 
vinced that the Christianity of the Nprth had become 
so debased. They said, "It is only a mistake, a delusion, 
that will quickly pass away, as the vapors of the night 
are dispelled by the rising sun." It is the only point 
in respect to which their prescience was seriously at 
fault. But how could they readily suspect that the 
churches under whose influence they had been trained, 
and which they had been taught to revere as the repre- 
sentatives of Christ and his religion, had entered into 
a moral eclipse so deep and dark? They would not 
believe it, and they did not until they were compelled ; 
and when at length the whole sad truth dawned upon 
their unwilling minds, they surrendered their faith in 
the churches while adhering more firmly than before 
to their faith in Christianity and its Divine Founder. 

In New Haven there was a high eflcrvescence of hos- 
tilit}^ to the proposed college. A city meeting, duly 
warned, was held (September 10, 1831), the Mayor, 
the Hon. Denis Kimberly, in the chair. Distinguished 
citizens, the Hon. Judge Daggett at their head, made 
indignant speeches, and the meeting resolved, by a 
vote of 700 to 4, "That the founding of colleges for 
educating colored people is an unwarrantable and dan- 
gerous interference with the internal concerns of other 
States, and ought to be discouraged " ; that " the estab- 
lishment in New Haven" of such a college "is incom- 
patible with the prosperity if not the existence of the 
present institutions of learning, and will be destructive 
of the best interests of the city " ; and that " the May- 
or, Aldermen, Common Council and Freemen" will 
" resist the establishment of the proposed college in this 



124 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

place by every lawful means." Mr. Jocelyn, the white 
pastor of the colored church, appears to have been the 
only clergyman in the city who had the courage to pro- 
test against this frenzied exhibition of colorphobia. 
The honored faculty of Yale assented by its silence to 
this imputation put upon its character by the meeting. 
Dr. Bacon, the popular pastor of the Centre Church, 
a leading Colonizationist, and a powerful writer and 
platform speaker, did not find his voice on this occa- 
sion, but, like his elders, bent before the storm. AVhen 
the whole tide of Colonization influence was runninof 
with Niagara force against the proposed college, it 
would have been an act of sublime heroism on his part 
if he had lifted his voice in its defence, as, twenty 
years later, he dared to protest against the repeal of 
the Missouri Compromise. Of the public opinion that 
could silence a man of such courasre little need be said. 

In the face of such opposition the plan of the pro- 
posed college seems to have been abandoned as imprac- 
ticable. A year later Arnold Buff'um, president of the 
New England Anti-Slavery Society, made an eflbrt to 
establish a colored seminary, but the anti-slavery ex- 
citement increased so rapidly as to absorb the time and 
means of the Abolitionists, and he was compelled to 
abandon the scheme. 

But another and still darker tale remains to be told. 
In 1832, Prudence Crandall, a Quaker young woman 
of high character, established in Canterbury, Wind- 
ham County, Conn., a school for young ladies. Now 
there was in that town a respectable colored farmer 
named Harris, who had a dauirhter, a briofht irirl of 
seventeen, who, having passed creditably through one 
of the district schools, desired to qualify herself to be 
a teacher of colored children. She was a girl of pleas- 
ing appearance and manners, a member of the Congre- 
gational church, and of a hue not darker than that of 
some persons who pass for white. Miss Crandall, good 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 125 

Quaker that she was, admitted this girl to her school. 
The pupils, some of whom had beeu associated witii 
her iu the district school, made no objection ; but some 
of the parents were oflended, and demanded the re- 
moval of the dark-skinned pupil. Miss Crandall made 
a strong appeal iu behalf of the girl, and did her best 
to overcome the prejudices of the objectors, but ia 
vain. After reflection she came to the conclusion, 
from a sense of duty, to open her school to other girls 
of a dark complexion. The announcement of her 
purpose threw the whole town into a ferment. A town- 
meeting was held in the Congregational Church, and 
so fierce was the excitement that the Rev. Samuel J. 
May and Mr. Arnold BufFum, the Quaker President of 
the New England Anti-Slavery Society, who had been 
deputed by Miss Crandall to speak for her, were denied 
a hearing. She had authorized these gentlemen to say 
that she would remove the school if her opponents 
would take her house off her hands on fair terms. 
Kesolutions of the most denunciatory character were 
offered and supported by leading citizens and unani- 
mously adopted. The leader in these proceedings was 
Andrew T. Judson, Esq., a lawyer of more than local 
reputation, a Democratic politician, much talked of as 
likely to be chosen Governor of the State. Hc3 was 
subsequently appointed Judge of the United States Dis- 
trict Court. He avowed himself a Colonizationist, and 
said he was determined that no " nigger " school should 
be set up anywhere in Connecticut. The colored peo- 
ple were an inferior race ; they could never rise from 
their menial condition in this country, and they ought 
not to be permitted to if they could. Africa was 
the place for them, and thither they should be sent. 
But Miss Crandall, unmoved by these manifestations 
of hostility, received into her school fifteen or twenty 
colored girls from Philadelphia, New York, Providence 
and Boston. Then began a series of persecutions of the 



126 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

most inhuman character. The storekeepers of Canter- 
bury refused to sell her anything, and she was compelled 
to send to the neighboring villages for household sup- 
plies. She and her pupils were insulted whenever they 
appeared in the streets. The doors and door-steps of 
her house were besmeared, and her well was filled with 
the most odious tilth. Had it not been for the help af- 
forded her by her father and another Quaker friend, 
•^vho lived in the town, she would have found it impos- 
sible to obtain water or food. The pupils were ex- 
cluded from the privileges of public worship by the 
officers of the Congregational church ! An attempt 
was made to drive them away by the revival of an ob- 
solete vagrant law, which provided that the selectmen 
of any town might warn any person, not an inhabitant 
of the State, to depart forthwith, and if the warning 
should be disregarded and the prescribed fine not be 
paid, then, after the lapse of ten days, the person 
might be whipped on the naked body not exceeding 
ten stripes ! A warrant, under this law, was actually 
served upon one of the pupils from Providence, but 
"wdien it was seen that she was not frightened, the pro- 
ceeding was abandoned. Moreover, the persecutors 
were baffled by the Rev. Mr. May, of the neighboring 
town of Brooklyn, who gave the treasurer of Canter- 
bury a bond in the sum of $10,000, signed by respon- 
sible gentlemen, to save the town from the vagrancy 
of any of the pupils. Then the persecutors procured 
the enactment of a law^ subjecting to fine and impris- 
onment any person who should set up anywhere in 
Connecticut a school for the instruction of colored 
pupils not residents of the State. Wli^n the news ar- 
rived in Canterbury of the passage of this infamous 
and unconstitutional law, the bells were rung, a cannon 
-vvas fired, and the people gave themselves up to vari- 
ous demonstrations of jo}''. Miss Crandall was ar- 
raiofued, bound over for trial, and thrust into jail,where 



GARRISON AXD HIS TIMES. 127 

she occupied a cell just vacated by a murderer. Such 
was the excitement that the local press dared not pub- 
lish a line from Miss Crandall or any of her friends. 
In this emergency, Mr. Arthur Tappan, the noble Now 
York merchant who had opened Garrison's prison door, 
furnished the Eev. Mr. May with funds to enable him to 
establish a newspaper, " The Unionist," and made him- 
self responsible for whatever sum might be required 
to employ counsel for the defence for Miss Crandall. 
The story of the legal contest that ensued is too lono- 
to be told here. It was brought to an end by a techni- 
cal error in the proceedings, so that no decision upon the 
merits was ever reached. The school, however, was 
finally broken up by violence. Miss Crandall's house 
was set on fire in the night, and it was saved from de- 
struction only because the sill under which the com- 
bustibles were applied was so rotten that it would not 
burn quickly. A few nights after this — to wit, on 
the 9th of September, 1834 — the house was assaulted 
at midnight by a mob armed with heavy clubs and iron 
bars ; five window-sashes were demolished, and ninety 
panes of glass broken in pieces. For these outrages 
in this Christian town there was no redress, and the 
school was abandoned. 

Two young meu, brothers, who were afterwards 
widely and honorably known in connection with the 
anti-slavery cause, were first brought to public notice 
during the Canterbury conflict. I allude to Charles 
C. and William H. Burleigh. The former was the 
chosen editor of "The Unionist," the paper estab- 
lished by Mr. May for the defence of Miss Crandall. 
He had just fitted himself for the bar, and gave prom- 
ise of eminence in his chosen profession. As an edi- 
tor he did a good work, and so also did his brother as 
his assistant. Both of them afterwards entered the 
anti-slavery field as lecturers. Both were powerful 
and eloquent champions of the cause. William was 



128 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

for some time editor of an miti-slaveiy paper in Pitts- 
burgh. He was a poet of no mean reputation. In the 
division of 1840, he joined the Liberty party ; but 
Charles continued his association with Mr. Garrison 
to the close of the conflict. Few men did more than 
the latter, by public speech, to form the public opin- 
ion which demanded the overthrow of slavery. He 
was as remarkable for his clear-sightedness and devo- 
tion as for his eloquence. 

If anybody wishes to know how it happens that 
Windham County, by her large Republican majority, 
has often saved the State of Connecticut from falling 
into the hands of the Copperhead Democracy, he may 
find the explanation in the facts above related, and in 
the discussions that ensued. The Abolitionism of that 
county was of the most thorough sort, receiving its im- 
press and its impetus from men in full sympathy with 
Mr. Garrison. In that county the Eev. Samuel J. May, 
of blessed memory, did his earliest and best work, sup- 
ported by the Bensons, the Burleighs, and others of a 
no less sterling character. There Avas in the begin- 
ning a Garrisonian grip and vim in the anti-slavery sen- 
timent of the county that was never lost, and that no 
political arts could overcome. In other parts of the 
State abolitionism w^as less intelligent and less thor- 
ough, and subject to unfortunate dilutions from men of 
expediency, whose every word against slavery was sup- 
plemented by two in opposition to " the extravagances 
of Garrison." Milk and Avater is not the diet that 
makes reform sinewy and powerful. If Connecticut 
anti-slavery, like that of Massachusetts, had been fed 
from the table of "The Liberator," that State, at no 
time within the last twenty-five years,' would have 
been in danger of falling into the hands of the pro- 
slavery Democracy. Every county in it would have 
been as thoroughly abolitionized as Windham. 

4 ri^i *'j£4^-' 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 129 



viir. 

Mr. Garrison goes to England — His Arrival Opportune — British 
Emancipation — Exposure of the Colonization Scheme — Protest 
of Wilberforce and Others — Death of Wilberforce — Mr. Garri- 
son Speaks in Exeter Hall — Writes to the London "■ Patriot " — 
Taken for a Negro by Buxton — George Thompson — His Mission 
to America and its Results — He Returns to England — Prepar- 
ing to Form a National Society — Mrs. Child's Appeal — Phelps's 
Lectures on Slavery — Western Reserve College — President 
Storrs and Professors Green and Wright — Death of President 
Storrs — Mob in New York. 

Soon after the formation of the Xew England Anti- 
Slavery Society it became known to its managers that 
the American Colonization Society had sent an agent to 
England, who, under the false pretence that the Soci- 
ety favored or was calculated to promote the abolition 
of American slavery, w^as collecting considerable sums 
of money for its treasury from the too credidous Abo- 
litionists of that countr3^ To counteract the etibrts of 
this agent, and to establish co-operative relations be- 
tween British and American Abolitionists, Mr. Garri- 
son, in the spring of 1833, w^as commissioned to visit 
England. It was not without difficulty that the funds 
to defray the expenses of this mission were obtained. 
The resources of the new society were hardly adequate 
to such an enterprise, but by persevering effort the 
object was achieved, and Mr. Garrison took his de- 
parture for the Old World with high hopes, followed 
by the prayers and sympathies of his devoted associ- 
ates, and by the execrations of the pro-slavery party. 
He arrived in England at an opportune moment. The 
anti-slavery struggle in that country was approaching 

17 



130 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

its consummation. The leaders of the cause, from all 
parts of the United Kingdom, were holding a confer- 
ence in London to prepare for their anticipated tri- 
umph in the passage of the Act of Emancipation. Mr. 
Garrison on presenting his credentials was received 
with open arms and invited to an honorary seat in a 
conference embracing such men as Clarkson, Wilber- 
force. Brougham, Macaulay, Buxton and O'Connell. 
He was then but twenty-eight years of age, but his 
modest bearing, combined with his grave earnestness 
and sound judgment, won the confidence of these em- 
inent men, who were cheered by the hope that Amer- 
ica, under the intluence of so wise a leader, would be 
speedily redeemed from the curse of slavery. Every 
desired facility was offered him for fulfilling the objects 
of his mission. He put his work, "Thoughts on Afri- 
can Colonization," into the hands of eminent men, 
some of whom had been misled by the agent of the 
Colonization Society, and in public and private dili- 
gently explained the origin, purpose and spirit of the 
Colonization scheme, citing oificial documents in proof 
of his charges against it. The anti-slavery feeling of 
Great Britain was then at a white heat, and the Aboli- 
tionists were indignant in view of the attempt to dupe 
them into the support of a society controlled by slave- 
holders in the interest of slavery. The agent of the 
Colonization scheme found his position far from envia- 
ble; his occupation was soon gone, and not long after- 
ward he returned to the United States. jNIr. Garrison 
brou2^ht home with him a "Protest" as^ainst the Colon- 
ization scheme, signed by Wilberforce, Macaulay, 
Buxton, O'Connell, and others of scarcely less w^eight, 
in which they declared that its claims to anti-slavery 
support were "wholly groundless," and expressed their 
"deliberate judgment and conviction " that its profes- 
sions were "delusive," its "real effects of the most 
dangerous nature." This protest, as well it might, had 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 131 

great weight with all sincere opponents of slavery in 
America, while it enraged the Colonizationists, who 
charged Mr. Garrison with deceiving the signers, 
though he had done no more than to call their atten- 
tion to the utterances of the prominent advocates of 
the scheme. Thomas Clarkson, shortly before his 
death, addressed a letter to Mr. Garrison, in which he 
also repudiated the Colonization scheme in very earnest 
language. 

Mr. Garrison's intercourse with the Abolitionists of 
Great Britain, and his studies of the work in which 
they were engaged, filled him with new hope and cour- 
ao-e, and tau^fht him some valuable lessons as to the 
ways and means of abolishing slavery at home. His 
faith in the potency of immediate emancipation as a 
working principle was confirmed by the experience of 
his British friends, and he saw more clearly than ever 
the danger and folly of compromises, and the delusive 
character of all partial and half-way measures. It 
was while he was in Enghmd that Wilberforce died, 
and it was his sad privilege to participate in the obse- 
quies of that great and good man, and to follow his 
remains to Westminster Abbey. Whether the Act of 
West India Emancipation was passed before or after 
his return I am not sure ; but the mef^sure was under 
discussion in Parliament while he was there, and he 
had the satisfaction of Kstening to the eloquence of 
some of its noblest champions in public meetings, if 
not in that body. The exhilarating efi'ect of such 
scenes upon the mind of a young American, conse- 
crated to the Avork of emancipation in his own country, 
may be more easily imagined than described. 

Mr. Garrison had a hearing in Exeter Hall, where 
he made a powerful speech, denouncing American 
slavery in the severest terms, and sweeping away with 
an invincible logic the apologies ofiered in its behalf. 
He spoke of the inconsistency and guilt of his own 



132 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

country in the strongest terms, giving great offence to 
some Americans then in England. He also wrote a 
letter, which was printed in the London "Patriot," in 
which he handled the subject with the same plainness 
of speech. "I know," he said, "that there is much 
declamation about the sacredness of the compact w hich 
was formed between the free and the slave States in 
the adoption of the National Constitution. A sacred 
compact, forsooth ! I pronounce it the most bloody 
and Heaven-daring arrangement ever made by men for 
the continuance and protection of the most atrocious 
villainy ever exhibited on earth. Yes, I recognize the 
compact, but with feelings of shame and indignation ; 
and it will be held in everlasting infamy by the friends 
of humanity and justice throughout the world. Who 
or what were the framers of the American government, 
that they should dare confirm and authorize such high- 
handed villainy — such a flagrant robbery of the in- 
alienable rights of man — such a glaring violation of 
all the precepts and injunctions of the gospel — such a 
savage war upon a sixth part of the whole population? 
It was not valid then — it is not valid now. Still they 
persist in maintaining it ; and still do their successors, 
the people of New England and of the twelve free 
States, persist in maintaining it. A sacred compact ! 
a sacred compact ! What then is wicked and ignomin- 
ious?" 

It is easy to sa}^ that this language is severe and "even 
bitter ; but it is not possible to deny its truth. What 
was it but a crime for a great nation, which had sol- 
emnly called upon the whole civilized world to bear 
witness to its sincerity in declaring that all men were 
created free and equal, to proceed to frame its govern- 
ment upon the condition that millions of human beings, 
and their descendants after them, should be slaves as 
long as it might please the masters to keep them in 
bondage ; to pledge its military power to keep them 



GARRISO]!? AND HIS TIMES. 133 

from brealving their own cliams, and to thnist back 
into the hell of bondage any &lave who &hould pre&ume 
to run away? 

One incident of Mr. Garrison's first visit to England 
is worthy of mention here. Sir Thomas Fowell Bux- 
ton, before meeting him, desiring to do him honor, 
invited him to breakfast. Mr. Garrison presented 
himself at the appointed time at Mr. Buxton's house. 
When his name was announced, Mr. Buxton, instead 
of coming forward promptly to take him by the hand, 
scrutinized him from head to foot, and then inquired, 
somewhat dubiously, ''Have I the pleasure of address- 
ing Mr. Garrison, of Boston, in the United States?" 
*' Yes," said Mr. Garrison, "I am he ; and I am here in 
accordance with your invitation." Lifting up both 
hands, Mr. Buxton exclaimed: "Why, my dear sir, I 
thought you were a black man, and I have conse- 
quently invited this company of ladies and gentlemen 
to be present to welcome Mr. Garrison, the black ad- 
vocate of emancipation from the United States of 
America." Mr. Buxton had seen some numbers of 
"The Liberator," and, supposing that no white Ameri- 
can could plead for those in bondage as Mr. Garrison 
did, inferred that he was a black man. Mr. Garrison 
used to say, that of all the compliments ever paid to 
him, this was the one that pleased him most, because it 
was a testimonial of his unqualified recognition of the 
humanity of the ^jegro. 

Among the British Abolitionists with whom llr. 
Garrison formed a close acquaintance was Mr. George 
Thompson, a man but little older than himself,, and 
who had taken a conspicuous part in the struggle- for 
West India emancipation. He was a man of surpass- 
ing force, eloquence and wit, "^'ho had vanquished the 
(Champions of slavery in England on many a field, audi 
led the friends of emancipation to the victory that was-- 
jugt then cro wiling tke gra^^ud struggle. He was for 



134 GARRISON AND IIIS TIMES. 

years the only lecturing agent of the. London Anti- 
Slavery Society, and in this capacity performed an in- 
credible amount of labor. He was in request in all 
parts of the kingdom, and everywhere his lectures 
were attended by crowds of the most intelligent peo- 
ple, who were enchanted by his eloquence and deeply 
moved by his appeals. He was a religious man, a 
Methodist, and in his j^outh had been the humble 
assistant of the Rev. Richard Watson, the great Meth- 
odist theologian. The greatest men in the kingdom 
— Brougham, Buxton, Wilberforce, O'Connell, and 
scores of others that might be named — always lis- 
tened to him with wonder and delight ; and in the 
House of Lords, at the time of the passage of the Act 
of Emancipation, Lord Brougham said : "I rise to 
take the crown of this most glorious victory from 
every other head and place it upon George Thomp- 
son's. He has done more than any other man to 
achieve it." 

What wonder that Mr. Garrison, after listening to 
the magic eloquence of this man, and hearing him com- 
mended, by the greatest men in England for the purity 
of his character and his unselfish devotion to the cause 
of the oppressed, conceived the idea, now that the 
freedom of the slaves in the West Indies had been se- 
cured, of inviting him to come to the United States 
and devote his masterly powers to the work of eman- 
cipation here ? How could he imagine that his fellow- 
countrymen would greet such a man, — a Christian, a 
friend and admirer of republican institutions, and a 
philanthropist of world-wide sympathies — with ma- 
lignant hisses as a "British emissary," with "pockets 
full of British gold," and bent upon destroying the 
Union? He knew, of course, that there were preju- 
dices here a«:ainst EnHand and Ensrlishmen ; but how 
could he, an American, loving his country, believe 
that this prejudice would degenerate into utter violence 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES, 135 

and brutality, and that such a man, inspired by a holy 
purpose and seeking only to aid us in breaking the 
letters of our slaves, would be hunted by Americans 
as a wild beast is hunted, and compelled to flee from 
our shores to save his life ? Thirty-four years after- 
ward Mr. Garrison said : " I had nothing to offer him 
— no money — no reward of any kind, except that 
which ever comes from well-doing. I supposed he 
would meet with a good deal of opposition, but I did 
not invite him to martyrdom. I did not imagine he 
w^ould be subjected to such diabolical treatment as was 
afterward shown to him. I only felt sure that if he 
could but obtain a fair hearing it would ere long be 
all over with slavery.^ I was confident that no audi- 
ence would be able to withstand the power of his elo- 
quence and the force of his arguments." But it was 
the knowledge of his great power that maddened the 
champions and apologists of slavery ; and from the 
time that he landed in New York, in the fall of 1834, 
until his departure a year later, he was denounced in 
the press, and not infrequently in the pulpit, as an en- 
emy of the country, an emissary of the British Gov- 
ernment, sent hither to destroy our institutions. The 
Abolitionists, of course, received him with open arms, 
and found in him all and more than had been prom- 
ised. Invitations poured in upon him from every quar- 
ter, and he was heard in Boston, Portland, Provi- 
dence, Concord, N. H., and in many other places in 
Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania 
and Ohio. In some instances he was even admitted to 
pulpits on Sunday. In every place where he spoke 
there are to this day undying traditions of his match- 
less eloquence and power. In many instance ^^ men 
who went to scoff, or perhaps meditating violence 
against him, were completely subdued and won to the 
cause. But all this only made the supporters of slav- 
ery the more angry, until at length his appearance in 



136 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

almost any place became the signal for a mob. An 
announcement, imauthorizcd and false, that he would 
address the Female Anti-Slavery Society of Boston, 
October 21, 1835, threw that city into a fearful state 
of excitement. He had been secreted by his friends 
sometime before, and had no intention of being pres- 
ent at the meeting in question. On the morning of 
the day, October 21, the streets of the city were pla- 
carded with the announcement that " that infamous 
foreign scoundrel, Thompson," would speak in the af- 
ternoon at No. 46 Washington Street, and "the friends 
of the Union" were reminded that there would be "a 
fair opportunity to snake him out." It was announced 
that " a purse of one hundred dollars " would " reward 
the individual" who should "first lay violent hands on 
Thompson, so that he may be brought to the tar-kettle 
before dark." This was the incitement to that famous 
Boston mob of "gentlemen of property and standing," 
of which an account will be given in another place. A 
month later Mr. Thompson embarked privately in a 
small English brig bound from Boston to St. Johns, 
fxom which port he sailed for England. 

I kave told the story of Mr. Thompson's first visit 
to this country a little out of the chronological order, 
beeaus*! it seemed naturally to connect itself with the 
account <^f Mr. Garrison's first visit to England, and 
jhaviiig gcme thus far, I may as well complete here what 
I have to .gay of this distinguished champion of the 
aaati-slavery cause. After his return to England he 
took an actis^e part in the movement for the abolition 
of the wretched apprenticeship system in the West 
Indies, and was engaged with Cobden and Bright in 
the o-rcat Cora law agitation which revolutionized the 
commercial policy of Great Britain. He was also en- 
listed ill the defence of the people of India against the 
.tyrannous practices of the East India Company, and 
in pursuit of that object passed seyeral years in the 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 137 

East, returning home in broken health. He was elected 
to Parliament from the Tower Hamlets of London, 
but does not seem tohave found the situation altosfether 
consrenial to his tastes and habits. In 1850, durin<2: 
the Fugitive Slave law excitement, he came to this 
country again, and remained, I think, nearly a year. 
Fifteen years had not sufficed wholly to remove the 
prejudices awakened by his first visit, but his life 
was no longer in danger. He was received with high 
honors in many places, and cheered by the mighty 
change wrought in public sentiment since the time 
when he was constrained to flee in secret from our 
shores. He was still a powerful speaker, and was 
heard in many places with delight. When the slave- 
holders' rebelUon broke out in 1861, he devoted him- 
self to the championship of the Northern cause among 
his countrymen. It was by his labors and those of a 
few kindred spirits that the laboring people as well as 
the middle class of the English population were kept 
informed of the nature and progress of our Avar, and a 
public opinion developed there that deterred the British 
Government from openly espousing the rebel cause. 
His labors in this direction were highly appreciated by 
President Lincoln and Secretary Stanton, and when, 
before the end of the war, he came again to the United 
States, the hall of the House of Representatives was 
opened for bis reception, and thi^onged by such an 
assembly of people from the loyal States as is rarely 
seen within those walls. The Vice-President of the 
the United States was in the chair, and President Lin- 
coln, with most of the members of his cabinet, was 
present. On this occasion, though in feeble health and 
Bufiering from some of the infirmities of age, he spoke 
with not a little of his old fire, calling forth the universal 
applause of his great audience. The President invited 
him to the Executive Mansion, and showed him every 
mark of respect. In many of the cities and towns of 

18 



138 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

the country he was welcomed and honored with equal 
heartiness and enthusiasm. By invitation of the Sec- 
retary of War, he and Mr. Garrison accompanied 
Major Anderson and his party, on board of the "Arago," 
in April, 1865, to see the star-spangled banner once 
more unfurled on the walls of Sumter. He marched 
in the procession, more than a mile long, extemporized 
by the Freedmen, which escorted the visitors from the 
North through the principal streets of Charleston, sing- 
ing the while, — 

*' John Brown's iDody lies mouldering in the grave, 
But his soul is marching on " — 

and 2:ivin2r cheer after cheer for Abraham Lincoln and 
others of their Northern friends. Thus did America, 
" redeemed, regenerated and disenthralled " from the 
execrable system of slavery, atone in part for the insults 
and persecutions inflicted at an early day by so many 
of her deluded citizens upon this noble champion of 
universal liberty. 

Mr. Thompson was a genuine lover of republican 
institutions, and had the courage to avow that love 
under the shadow of the British throne, and in the 
presence of the British aristocracy. America never 
found in any foreign land a truer or more disinterested 
friend. The motives of Lafayette and Steuben and 
Kosciusko, in coming over the Atlantic to help us in 
our Revolutionary struggle, were not purer than those 
of Mr. Thompson in coming hither to take part in the 
movement for the overthrow of the system of slavery, 
and his name deserves to be handed down to posterity 
on both sides of the Atlantic, among those of the 
noblest benefactors of mankind. The attachment 
between him and Mr. Garrison was as warm as that 
between David and Jonathan. Their souls were knit 
together by common purposes, hopes and aspirations, 
and they were not far divided in their death, Mr. 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 139 

Thompson's departure occurring only a few months 
before that of his devoted friend. 

Before ]\Ir. Garrison's departure for Enghind, and 
during his absence, there was much serious tallv among 
AboUtionists about organizing a National Anti-Slavery 
Society. The need of such an association was seriously 
felt, and the only question was whether the time for 
its organization had come. Already a considerable 
number of local auxiliaries to the New England Anti- 
Slavery Society had been formed, and the cause was 
gaining a strong foothold in many places. The circu- 
lation of " The Liberator " was extending, and its power 
was felt in many quarters. A considerable number of 
clergymen of different denominations had espoused the 
cause and opened their pulpits to anti-slavery lectures, 
while others were anxiously considering the subject. 
There was, moreover, a most auspicious beginning of 
an anti-slavery literature. Mrs. Lydia Maria Child, 
" than whom," said " The North American Review " of 
the period, "few female writers, if any, have done 
more or better things for our literature, in its lighter 
or graver departments," published in the summer of 
1833 a most valuable book, creditable alike to her lit- 
erary skill and her womanly courage. She was the 
most popular female writer in the country — popular 
at the South as well as at the North ; and she not only 
made a sacrifice of her popularity, but exposed herself 
to an overwhebning tide of obloquy and abuse by lend- 
ing her powerful pen to the cause of the slave. Nothing 
could have been more pertinent or timely, and, I may 
add, more convincing, than her "Appeal in Favor of 
that Class of Americans called Africans." It showed 
up the slave-system in the light of the laws framed for 
its regulation ; cited multitudes of authentic facts show- 
ing that the system was of necessity barbarous and 
cruel ; proved by the laws of human nature and the 
testimony of experience the perfect safety of immedi- 



140 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

ate emancipation ; vindicated the humanity of the 
negro, and exposed the character and designs of the 
Colonization Society. The book was received with 
joy by the Abolitionists, with rage by their oppo- 
nents. ''Uncle Tom's Cabin "came long after this, 
and only when the way had been prepared for 
it by toils and sacrifices of which the people of this 
generation know very little. The '' Appeal," though 
sneered at and denounced in high quarters, w^as widely 
read, and converts were multiplied by its influence. 
And having introduced the name of this excellent wo- 
man, I will add that from that early day to the end of 
the conflict her pen was always at the service of the 
cause. Her anti-slavery writings, too various to be 
enumerated here, w^ere of the highest value, and " The 
National Anti-Slavery Standard," under her editorship, 
exerted a wide and powerful influence. It w^as her 
privilege to witness the final triumph of the cause she 
served so faithfully ; and now, in a green old age, her 
mental powers are unimpaired, her pen still employed 
in the service of mankind. 

Another book of equal power and value with Mrs. 
Child's "Appeal" was published before the end of the. 
year (1833). I allude to "Lectures on Slavery and 
its Remedy," by the Rev. Amos A. Phelps, pastor of 
the Pine Street Congregational Church, Boston. ^ The 
author, a young man of fine ability and promise, a 
graduate of Yale (both College and Theological Sem- 
inary), was full of zeal in the cause. While his book 
was'passing through the press, it occurred to him that 
it would be a good thing to publish with it a declara- 
tion of anti-slavery sentiment, signed by a number of 
clersrymen of different douominations. He accordingly 
drew up such a declaration and sent it out tor signa- 
tures among his clerical brethren. One hundred and 
twenty-four names were returned from Maine, New 
Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 141 

Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, and Ohio, and 
their aj^pearance in the book encouraged the Abolition- 
ists to hope that the churclies would soon espouse the 
cause in a body. The substance of the declaration 
was : " 1 . That colonization is not an adequate rem- 
edy for slaver}^ and must therefore be abandoned for 
something that is ; and 2. That the scheme of imme- 
diate emancipation is such a remedy, and is therefore 
to be adopted and urged." In looking over the list 
of signers I find a few eminent names, among them 
those of the late George Shepard, of Bangor; David 
Thurston, of Winthrop ; Professor William Smyth, of 
Bowdoin College ; Jacob Ide, of Medway, Mass. (still 
living at well-nigh a hundred years of age) ; D. C. 
Lansing, of Utica ; Beriah Green, of the Oneida In- 
stitute ; Joshua Leavitt, editor of "The New York 
Evangelist"; Asa i\Iahan, of Cincinnati (afterward 
President of Oberlin) ; Professor John Morgan, of 
Lane Theological Seminary ; Charles B. Storrs, Presi- 
dent of the Western Reserve College, and the sainted 
Samuel J. May. I may also include the name of the 
late Pev. Dr. Joel Parker, who afterwards settled in 
New Orleans and made shipwreck of his anti-slavery 
faith. These and some others were men of considera- 
ble influence at that day, but the signers, for the most 
part, Avere undistinguished. "Not many wise men 
after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble," had 
accepted the new gospel of freedom. The cause had 
a charm for ingenuous, uncalculating young men, while 
the timid, the ambitious and the self-seeking naturally 
stood aloof. Pastors of wealthy churches in the cities 
and larger towns, men who aspired to leadership in 
their respective denominations, as a general rule, 
resisted the movement with all the weapons at their 
command. 

Another event that greatly encouraged the Aboli- 
tionists was the favor shown to their cause by the pres- 



142 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

ident and several of the professors of the Western 
Eeservc College at Hudson, Ohio. "The Liberator" 
and Garrison's '' Thoughts on Colonization " had found 
their way to this institution, where they exerted an 
instant and powerful influence. The president and at 
least two of the professors espoused the cause with 
their whole hearts, and not only discussed the subject 
themselves, but invited discussion on the part of the 
students. The president was the Kev. Charles B. 
Storrs, a gifted younger brother of the late Richard S. 
Storrs, D.D., of Braintree, Mass. No other man of 
his age in the United States was in higher repute as an 
eloquent preacher and a man of fearless devotion to 
every principle of truth and righteousness than he. 
"The fear of man that bringeth a snare" had no place 
in his noble nature. He loved liberty — liberty for all 
men — with his Avhole heart, and could see no reason 
why a black man more than a white one should be 
reduced to slavery. He felt himself bound as a Chris- 
tian to testify against every form of despotism, and to 
" remember them that were in bonds as bound with 
them." Convinced of the iniquity and danger of Amer- 
ican slavery, he wrote and preached against it with an 
earnestness and eloquence that stirred the hearts of all 
who listened. Professor Beriah Green, a man of kin- 
dred spirit and a no less powerful preacher, was another 
convert to the cause ; and so also was Professor Elizur 
Wright, a layman, who wielded a pen as keen as a 
Daniascus blade. These men, by their discussion of 
the slavery question, produced a profound excitement, 
not only in the college, but all over Northern Ohio. 
The trustees were alarmed, thinking if the excitement 
continued the college would be ruined. A controversy 
ensued, which resulted in the resignation of these three 
men — a blow to the college from which it did not re- 
cover for years. President Storrs soon afterward fell a 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 143 

victim to consumption, dying at the house of bis brother 
ill Braintree. His last effort to guide a pen was in the 
attempt to append his name to the declaration of sen- 
timent printed with the lectures of Mr. Phelps. His 
paper was ruled for him, and all things prepared. He 
took the pen, traced all the letters of his first name, 
but found that one of them was transposed, laid down 
the pen calmly and said : " I can write no more — IVe 
blundered here. Brother, will you write my name 
and give the date and place where I am ? Those prin- 
ciples are eternal truths, and cannot be shaken. I 
wdsh to give them my testimony." One of the first of 
Whittier's anti-slavery poems — perhaps, with the ex- 
ception of his Lines to Garrison, the very first — is his 
tribute to this noble man, from which I select these 
stanzas : — 

" Thou hast fallen in thine armor, 

Thou martyr of the Lord ! 
With thy last breath crying ' Onward ! ' 

And thy hand upon thy sword. 
The haughty heart derideth, 

And the sinful lip reviles, 
But the blessing of the perishing 

Around thy pillow smiles. 

Oppression's hand may scatter 

Its nettles on thy tomb, 
And even Christian bosoms 

Deny thy memory room ; 
For lying lips shall torture 

Thy mercy into crime, 
And the slanderer shall flourish 

As the bay-tree, for a time. 

But, where the south wind lingers 

On Carolina's pines, 
Or, falls the careless sunbeam 

Down Georgia's golden mines; 
Where now beneath his burden 

The toiling slave is driven ; 
Where now a tyrant's mockery 

Is offered unto Heaven — 



144 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

"Where Mammon hath its altars, 

Wet o'er with hiimau blood, 
And pride and lust debases 

The workmanship of God — 
There shall thy praise be spoken, 

Redeemed from Falsehood's ban, 
"When the fetters shall be broken, 

And the slave shall be a man ! 

In the evil days before ns, 

And the trials yet to come, 
In the shadow of the prison 

Or the cruel martyrdom, 
We will think of thee, O brother! 

And thy sainted name shall be ' 
In the blessing of the captive. 

In the anthem of the free." 

Beriali Green ^^as called to the presidency of the 
Oneida Institute, where, as teacher and preacher for 
many years, he exerted a great influence, being widely 
known and beloved. He was equally eloquent with 
voice and pen. Professor Wright was called to serve 
the American Anti-Slavery Society, shortly afterwards 
formed, as Corresponding Secretary — an office that he 
filled with consummate ability for four or five years. 
The annual reports from his pen were masterly presen- 
tations of the society's principles and objects. He ed- 
ited the society's publications, "The Emancipator," 
"Human Rights," "Anti-Slavery Record," and " Quar- 
terly Anti-Slavery Magazine," making them all power- 
ful agents for promoting the cause. At a later date he 
was editor of "The Massachusetts Abolitionist," and 
later still of a Boston daily paper, " The Chronotype." 

Mr. Garrison's account of what he had seen and 
heard in England greatly encouraged the friends of the 
cause, and he was himself no less cheered when he 
found, on his return, that a call had been issued for a 
convention to meet in Philadelphia on the 4th, 5th and 
Gth of the ensuing December, to form a National Anti- 
Slavery Society. He entered into the project with all 
his heart. The public mind was in an exceedingly fev- 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 145 

erish condition. The enemies of the anti-slavery 
cause, seeing that it was rapidly gaining ground, and 
stung to madness by what they called the " impertinent 
interference " of Wilberforce and other Ensflish Aboli- 
tionists with the " domestic institutions " of the United 
States, began to show symptoms of a purpose to resort 
to violence in order to suppress the agitation. The 
formation of an Anti-Slavery Society in New York, 
which took place on the day of Garrison's landing 
in the city on his return from England, was made the 
occasion of a mob. The Abolitionists defeated their 
opponents by a ruse. Foreseeing that their meeting, if 
held at the place where it was first appointed, would 
be broken up, they went to the old Chatham Street 
Chapel, where they organized their society, and then 
retired through a rear door as the mob entered at the 
front. The disturbers encountered but one man, the 
noble old Quaker, Isaac T. Hopper, who, when his 
fellow Abolitionists retired, concluded to stay and see 
what the mob would do. He Avas found sitting in im- 
perturbable quiet, in a meditative mood, on one of the 
benches, not in the least disturbed by the entrance of 
the mob, whom he badgered and shamed by his unfail- 
ing vvit. The mob was instigated by the press, nota- 
bly by James Watson Webb's "Courier and Enquirer" 
and Colonel Stone's " Commercial Advertiser." Not 
that these papers, in so many words, recommended a 
resort to violence, but that their inflammatory denuncia- 
tions and misrepresentations of the Abolitionists were 
precisely adapted, if not even intended, to produce 
that result. 

This mob occurred after the call for the National Con- 
vention was issued. If it had occurred sooner, possi- 
bly the Convention might have been delayed, and possi- 
bly it might not. The Abolitionists, though coura- 
geous, were not reckless. They did not desire to pro- 
voke violence ; far from it. But they felt that their 



19 



146 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

cause was just — that God was on their side ; and they 
were sure that, whatever of reproach, persecution or 
violence they might be called to endure, the cause 
would eventually triumph. They were resolved to act 
a worthy part, as men and Christians who loved their 
country, and who meant, by the help of God, to de- 
liver it from the crime and curse of human bondage. 
And so they held their Convention. 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 147 



IX. 

Formation of the American Anti-Slavery Society — Character and 
Spirit of the Convention — The Declaration of Sentiments 
Drafted by Garrison — Close of the Convention — The Society 
Begins its Work — Headquarters in New York — The First An- 
niversary — The Bible Society Tested and Found Wanting — 
Hostility of the Press — Attitude of the Churches — Apologies 
for Slavery — Mobs — Judge Jay — W. I. Emancipation. 

The National Convention which met in Philadelphia 
Dec. 4, 1833, to form the American Anti-Slaveiy So- 
ciety, was a very remarkable body of men, and its 
proceedings were of the highest interest and impor- 
tance from their bearing upon the progress of the 
cause and the welfare of the nation. It was composed 
of sixty-two delegates from eleven different States. 
Without a single exception, I believe, they were 
Christian men, most of them members, and a dozen or 
so ministers of evangelical or Orthodox churches. 
Only two or three of the small denomination of Uni- 
tarians were present, but one of these, the late Sam- 
uel J. May, was a host in himself. Both branches of 
the Society of Friends, Orthodox and Hicksite, were 
represented. I was not myself a member of the Con- 
vention. Before it was called I left Boston for a visit 
to Ohio, under circumstances which made my attendance 
impossible. This to me has been a subject of life-long 
regret, for no public gathering during the whole anti- 
slavery struggle was more memorable than this. It 
was composed of men, most of whom had never seen 
each other before, but who were drawn together by 
convictions and purposes as high as any that ever ani- 
mated the human soul. They were of one heart and 



148 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

one mind, their bond of union being the common love 
of freedom which the founders of the Republic de- 
clared to be inalienable, and which is of the very soul 
and substance of Christianity ; a common hatred of a 
sj'stem which made merchandise of humanity, and a 
common purpose to do what they might, by the help 
of God, to deliver their country from such a crime 
and curse. They knew that they Avere undertaking no 
holiday task. They saw the black cloud that was 
gathering around them, and heard the mutterings of 
the storm that was so soon to burst upon their devoted 
heads. Philadelphia, then a Southern city in its sym- 
pathies, met them with angry frowns. The press 
teemed with misrepresentations and menaces that fell 
upon the Southern hot-bloods gathered in the medical 
schools, and upon other mobocratic elements of the 
population, as sparks upon tinder. The very air of 
the city was sulphurous, ready at any moment to burst 
into a devouring flame. They were officially warned 
to hold no evening meetings ; the Mayor could only 
assure them protection in the daytime ! This in the 
city of "Brotherly Love," whence issued, but fifty- 
seven years before, the Declaration of American Inde- 
pendence ! In such circumstances we need not won- 
der that some of the delegates, at a preliminary con- 
ference, resolved, if possible, to persuade some 
distinguished and well-known citizen of the city, whose 
name might be a shield, to act as president of the Con- 
vention. Thomas Wister and Robert Yaux, two emi- 
nent philanthropists, Quakers both, were successively 
waited upon, and earnestly entreated to accept the po- 
sition, but they both declined. Robert Vaux was the 
one last applied to, but, though he was a professed 
Abolitionist, he could not be persuaded to face the 
ffatherim? storm. When the committee retired from 
his house they were conscious that they had at least 
gone quite as far in their search for a distinguished 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 149 

presiding officer as their self-respect would allow ; and 
Beriah Green said, in a sarcastic tone, "If there is not 
timber amongst ourselves big enough to make a presi- 
dent of let us get along without one, or go home and 
stay there till we have grown up to be men." 

The delegates, on their way to the Adelphi Build- 
ing, where the Convention was held, says Samuel J. 
May, "were repeatedly assailed with most insulting 
words." As they passed through the door, guarded 
by a body of policemen, and took their seats in the 
hall, we need not Avonder if they were awed by a 
sense of the greatness of their task and of their need 
of Divine help. If I may believe the testimony of 
some who were present, the disciples of Jesus, when 
they were assembled together after the crucifixion, to 
consider what they should do for the propagation of 
the Christian faith, were no more solemn, tender or 
prayerful in their mood, than were the members of 
this Convention in view of the work before them. In 
such an hour men forget all the petty differences of 
sect and party, and remember only their humanity and 
the sacredness of their work. " Never," says Samuel 
J. May, "have I seen men so ready, so anxious to rid 
themselves of whatsoever was narrow, selfish or merely 
denominational. If ever there was a praying assem- 
bly, I believe that was one." After a fervent prayer, 
in which all the members seemed to unite, the Con- 
vention was organized by the appointment of the Rev. 
Beriah Green, of Whitesboro, N. Y., as President, 
and Wm. Green, Jr., and John G. Whittier as Secreta- 
ries. After a free and somewhat informal interchancfe 
of thought, it was unanimously agreed that the time 
had come for the organization of a National Society, 
and committees were appointed to draft a Constitution 
and nominate officers. The reports of these commit- 
tees occupied the Convention during the afternoon. 
The object of the new Society, as set forth in the 



150 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

Constitution, was " the entire abolition of slavery 
in the United States." While admittinc: that each 
State had cxclusiv^e right to legislate in regard to its 
abolition, it avoAved its aim to bo to convince the peo- 
ple of the slave States by arguments addressed to their 
understandings and consciences, that slaveholding was 
a heinous sin against God, and that duty and safety 
required its immediate abandonment, without expatri- 
ation. It maintained the duty of Congress to abolish 
slavery in the District of Columbia, and the trade in 
slaves between the several States, and urged the duty 
of elevating the character and condition of the free 
people of color. It pledged the Society, moreover, 
to discountenance the use of force to secure the free- 
dom of the slaves. From this it will be seen that the 
members of the Convention were fully aware of all 
the limitations of the United States Constitution, and 
that it called upon the National Government to exer- 
cise only such powers in relation to slavery as, by the 
commo^i consent of statesmen of all parties, up to 
that time, it possessed. It is important to observe 
this, since the Abolitionists were charged by their op- 
ponents with an unintelligent and reckless zeal that 
overleaped all the barriers of the Constitution, and 
would free the slaves by means which that instrument 
forbade. The discussions in Congress and in the news- 
papers, so far as our opponents were concerned, went 
on for years upon this false assumption. The slave- 
holders and their apologists knew that they could 
resist us successfully only by appeals to popular igno- 
rance and prejudice, and by exciting a wild clamor, in 
the midst of which the reasonableness of our purposes 
and plans should be overlooked. 

But the Constitution of the Society, as an exposition 
of its principles, purposes and plans, was thought to 
be insufficient. It was instmctively felt that there was 
need of a document of a more imposing character, 



GARRISON" AND HIS TIMES. 151 

which should he to the anti-shivery movement what the 
Declaration of Independence was to the fathers in the 
Revolutionary struggle. The duty of preparing such 
a document was assigned to a committee of ten, com- 
l^oscd of Messrs. Atlee, Wright, Garrison, Jocehai, 
Thurston, Sterling, William Green, Jr., AYhittier, 
Goodell and May. This committee, after a consulta- 
tion of several hours, in Avhicli the nature and design 
of the proposed paper were carefully considered, ap- 
pointed a sub-committee of three to draft the same. 
This sub-committee was composed of Messrs. Garri- 
son, AVhittier and May, and after consultation it was 
determined that Mr. Garrison should write the docu- 
ment. He sat down to the task at ten o'clock in the 
evening, and when, at 8 o'clock the next morning, 
Messrs. Whittier and May, according to previous 
agreement, went to meet him, they found him, with 
shutters closed and lamps burning, just writing the 
last paragraph of his admirable draft. The sub-com- 
mittee, after careful examination and a few slight alter- 
ations, laid it before the committee of ten, which, after 
three hours of careful consideration, reported it to the 
Convention. It was read to that body by Edwin P. 
Atlee, chairman of the committee. "Never in my 
life," says Mr. May, "have I seen a deeper impression 
made by words than was made by that admirable doc- 
ument upon all who were there present. After the 
voice of the reader had ceased there was silence for 
several minutes. Our hearts were in perfect unison. 
There was but one thought with us all. Either of the 
members could have told what the whole Convention 
felt. We felt that the word had just been uttered 
which would be mighty, through God, to the pulling 
down of the strongholds of slavery." The Convention 
then proceeded to consider the paper. It was taken 
up, paragraph by paragraph, sentence by sentence, and 
after five hours of discussion, unanimously adopted. 



152 GAKRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

Then it was engrossed upon parchment by the late 
Abraham L. Cox, M. D., of New York, and on the 
last day of the Convention, signed by all the delegates, 
sixty-two in number. 

Of this "Declaration of Sentiments," the Magna 
Charta of the anti-slavery movement, what shall I say? 
As a specimen of vigorous and pure English it certainly 
will not .suffer by comparison with its model, the 
Declaration of Independence. The great struggle 
which it heralded, and whose principles and purposes 
it so clearly defined, is now over, and most of those 
whose names were appended to it have entered upon 
the life beyond ; but no man possessed of ordinary 
human sympathies can read it even now without being 
deeply moved. It is full of power. Its sentences 
throb with moral and intellectual vitality. It stirs the 
heart like the blast of a trumpet. No one who reads 
it and considers its high purpose and import will think 
John G. Whittier extravagant when he said : " It will 
live as long as our national history. I love, perhaps 
too well, the praise and good-will of my fellow-men ; 
but I set a higher value on my name as appended to 
that Declaration than on the title-page of any book. 
Looking over a life marked with many errors and short- 
comings, I rejoice that I have been able to maintain the 
pledge of that signature, and that in the long interven- 
ing years 

' My voice, thougli not the loudest, has been heard 
Wherever Freedom raised her cry of pain.' " 

The Declaration is too long, of course, to be copied 
here, but I must bring before the reader a few of its 
tersQ and thrilling sentences : — 

" With entire confidence in the overruling justice of God, 
we plant ourselves upon the Declaration of our Independence 
and tlie truths of Divine Revelation as upon the Everlasting 
Rock. 



GARRISON AKD HIS TIMES. 153 

" We shall organize anti-slavery societies, if possible, in 
every city, town and village in our land. 

" We shall send forth agents to lift up the voice of remon- 
strance, of warning, of entreaty and rebuke. 

" We shall circulate unsparingly and extensively anti- 
slavery tracts and periodicals. 

" Wfi shall enlist the pulpit and the press in the cause of 
the suffering and the dumb. 

"We shall aim at the purification of the churches from all 
participation in the guilt of slavery. 

" We shall spare no exertions nor means to bring the whole 
nation to speedy repentance. 

*' Our trust for victory is solel}^ in God. We ma}' be per- 
sonally defeated, but our principles never. Truth, justice, 
reason, humanit}', must and will gloriously triumph. Already 
a host is coming up to the help of the Lord against the 
mighty, and the prospect before us is full of encouragement. 

'' Submitting this declaration to the candid examination of 
the people of this country, and of the friends of liberty 
throughout the world, we hereby affix our signatures to it, 
pledging ourselves that, under the guidance and by the help 
of Almighty God, we will do all that in us lies, consistently 
with this declaration of principles, to overthrow the most ex- 
ecrable system of slavery that has ever been witnessed upon 
earth, to deliver our land from its deadliest curse, to wipe 
out the foulest stain that rests upon our National escutcheon, 
and to secure to the colored population of the United States 
all the rights and privileges which belong to them as men 
and as Americans, come what may to our persons, our inter- 
ests, or our reputation ; whether we live to witness the tri- 
umph of liberty, justice and humanity, or perish untimely as 
martyrs in this great, benevolent and holy cause." 

Such was the purpose, such the spirit of Gjirrison 
and of the whole anti-slavery movement ; such it was 
in the beginning, such it was in every hour of its prog- 
ress, and to the very end. Here is the fanaticism, 
the " coarse vituperation " {vide Dr. Whedon), and the 
"infidelity" from which the American churches turned 
away in afiected digust ; and yet there are those in the 

20 



154 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

churches, even at this da}^ who would, were it possible, 
hide from future generations the shame of their delin- 
quency, their recreancy to humanity and to Christ, and 
meanly throw the responsibility therefor upon those 
whose only fault was that they showed them the right 
way and besought them with many prayers and tears 
to enter into it. There never was an hour when the 
ministers and churches of this land, if they had had 
any heart for the work, or any earnest purpose or de- 
sire to overthrow slavery, might not have assumed 
complete control of the anti-slavery movement, and 
when the persecuted and maligned AI)olitionists would 
not have received them with shouts of gladness, and, 
to make room for them, consigned themselves, if nec- 
essary, to utter obscurity. It was not that they did 
not choose to follow Mr. Garrison — that of itself was 
a small matter — but it was that with the whole ques- 
tion within their grasp, with power to appoint such 
leaders as they pleased, they did nothing — nay, that 
they virtually took sides with the slaveholders, and 
tried to screen them from rebuke, weaving apologies 
for them out of perverted texts of Scripture, and en- 
couraging them to persevere in their sin'. 

The Convention, after a session of three days, hav- 
ing completed the work for which it convened, ad- 
journed sine die, in a very serious 3^et hopeful frame of 
mind, its members returning to their respective homes 
to do what they might for the furtherance of the cause. 
The President, the Hev. Beriah Green, made a part- 
ing address of singular eloquence and power, that 
melted the whole body into tears. His closing words 
were these : — 

" But now we must retire from these balmy influences and 
breathe anotlier almosphere. The chill hoar frost will be 
upon us. The storm and tempest will rise, and the waves 
oi' persecution will dash against our souls. Let us be pre- 
pared for the worst. Let us fasten ourselves to the throne 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 155 

of God as with hooks of steel. If we cling not to Him, our 
names to that document [the Declaration] will be as dust. 
Let us court no applause ; indulge in no spirit of vain boast- 
ing. Let us be assured that our only hope in grappling with 
the bony monster is in an Arm that is stronger than ours. 
Let us fix our gaze on God, and walk in the light of His 
countenance. If our cause is just — and we know it is — 
His omnipotence is pledged to its triumph. Let this cause 
be entwined around the very fibres of our hearts. Let our 
hearts grow to it, so that nothing but death can sunder the 
bond." 

Instantly upon closing his address, the President 
lifted up his voice in a prayer so tender, so solemn, so 
fervent, so heartfelt, that all present were deeply touched 
and awed; and then, under the influence of this bap- 
tism from on high, the members bade each other fare- 
well, and went out to fight a great battle for God and 
humanity. 

The new Society began its operations promptly and 
vigorousl}^ making New York its headquarters. Its 
ofiice was on the corner of Nassau and Spruce streets, 
on the very spot now occupied by the Tribune Build- 
ing. Among its officers were a few men of consider- 
able distinction. Arthur Tappan, the President, stood 
high as a merchant, and was widely known as a liberal 
supporter of the religious and benevolent societies o( 
the day. His brother Lewis, a man of very remarka- 
ble executive force and fertile in plans for promoting 
the cause, was a member of the Executive Committee. 
Professor Elizur Wright, Jr., from the Western Ke- 
serve College, was the Domestic Corresponding Secre- 
tary ; William Lloyd Garrison, Secretary of Foreign 
Correspondence. The Committee, as a whole, was a 
well chosen and very efficient body of men — every 
one of them, if I mistake not, an Orthodox Christian. 
One of its first measures was the adoption as its own 
of " The Emancipator," a weekly paper which had ex- 



156 GARKISON AND HIS TBIES. 

isted for several months, under the editorship of Rev. 
C. ^y. Denison. William GoodcU, a powerful writer 
and thoroughly familiar w^th the slavery question, was 
appointed editor. Arthur Tappan subscribed $3,000 
a large sum for that day to be given to any benev- 
olent cause; John Kankin, $1,200, William Green, 
Jr., $1,000. and other friends lesser sums, to promote 
the cause. Tracts were printed and sent flying through 
the land. Among these tracts, if I remember aright, 
were the Rev. Dr. Samuel Hopkins's "Dialogue on Slav- 
ery," and Dr. Jonathan Edwards's famous anti-slavery 
sermon. Lecturing agents were also sent out. The 
Society began its work so vigorously and with such a 
determined purpose, that while its friends were much 
encouraged, its enemies became more and more angry. 
Accessions to the cause of both ministers and laymen 
were numerous, so much so that for a time the hope ^vas 
indulged that the leaders of the different religious 
denominations at the North would soon give up their 
opposition, that the whole body of the churches would 
wheel into line and the pulpit lift up a united voice in 
opposition to slavery. This w^as what we all longed for ; 
for this we incessantly toiled and prayed, for we were 
then fully aware of the truth, afterward proclaimed by 
Albert Barnes, that "there was no power outside of the 
church that would sustain slavery an hour if it were 
not sustained in it." We saw, therefore, that the ter- 
rible responsibility for the existence of slavery rested 
upon the churches ; and we appealed to them, in the 
name of God and of Christ, and by arguments drawn 
from the Bible, to abandon their position of open con- 
nivance, or of a not less guilty silence, in respect to 
the sin which made Jetferson tremble for his country 
when he remembered that God is just. But our plead- 
ings, for the most part, so far as the leaders in the 
churches were concerned, fell upon dull ears and con- 
sciences hardened by long complicity with sin. One 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 157 

powerful ally of our cause at this time was "The New 
York Evangelist," then edited by the Rev. Joshua 
Leavitt. It had a considerable circulation, and exerted 
a wide influence among the "New School" Presbyteri- 
ans, who were active in the revivals that occurred in 
connection with the labors of the Rev. Charles G. Fin- 
uey. It advocated the cause with zeal and earnest- 
ness, and many clergymen and laymen were led by it 
to declare themselves Abolitionists. When Mr. Leav- 
itt withdrew from " The Evangelist " to become editor 
of "The Emancipator," the anti-slavery tone of the 
former became quite feeble, in compliance, no doubt, 
with the well-understood desire of the larger number 
of its readers. It was never afterward an Abolition 
paper, but, with certain anti-slavery tendencies, a 
supporter of the New School Presbyterian Church, 
which James G. Birney said was one of the " bulwarks 
of slavery." 

The Society held its first anniversary May 6, 1834, 
taking the place in "Anniversary Week" which it ever 
afterward held among the religious and philanthropic 
associations of the country. At this meeting it took 
one step which caused much excitement. The Ameri- 
can Bible Society had been engaged in supplying every 
family in the United States with a Bible, and had an- 
nounced to the British Society the completion of this 
work. But it had taken no more account of the scores 
of thousands of families of slaves than of "the cattle 
upon a thousand hills," or of the wild beasts that 
roamed the forests. The Anti-Slavery Society passed a 
resolution calling public attention to this omission, and 
ofl'ering, if the Bible Society would appropriate $20,- 
000 for this purpose, to put into its treasury one- 
quarter of that sum. A committee, of which Mr. 
Lewis Tappan was the chairman, was made the bearer 
of this proposition to the board of managers of the 
Bible Society. Mr. Tappan having presented it, asked 



158 GARKISON AND IIIS TIMES. 

permission to say a few words in explanation ; but he 
was denied a hearing, and no mention of the matter 
whatever appeared in the official report of the society's 
proceedings. Considering that the shiveholders and 
their allies always insisted that the Bible sanctioned 
slavery, their unwillingness that the slaves should read 
it for themselves appeal^ not a little strange. 

The agitation had now gained such headway that the 
pro-slavery party became desperate. The press of 
the country, with some noble exceptions, teemed with 
misrepresentations and denunciations of Abolitionists, 
which sounded strangely enough when compared with 
the compUiints made of them in the same quarter on 
account of their alleged severity. I regret to say that 
the relio-ious was not less abusive than the secular 
press. Here and there a religious paper treated the 
subject with something like reasonable fairness, but 
as a sreneral rule the origans of the different sects were 
bitterly hostile. The Methodist paper of New Eng- 
land, "Zion's Herald," which was not under ecclesias- 
tical control, was friendly ; but " The Christian Advo- 
cate " of New York, the official organ of the Methodist 
church, was filled with gross abuse of the Abolition- 
ists. As there appears to be a disposition in some 
quarters to deny or conceal these ugly facts, and to 
make the Abolitionists themselves responsible, through 
their alleged imprudence and recklessness, for the op- 
position they met with, let me fortify my own testi- 
mony by citing that of the Rev. William Goodell, who 
was a Calvinist of the Calvinists to the day of his 
death. "The religious presses," he says, "of the prin- 
cipal sects at the North, particularly of the Congrega- 
tionalist sect, in the hands of the conservative party, 
were the first to traduce, to misrepresent, to vilify 
and to oppose the Abolitionists, representing them as 
anarchists, Jacobins, vilitiers of great and good men, 
incendiaries, plotters of insurrection and disunion, and 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 159 

enemies of the public peace." And now behold ! 
When the shamcliil complicity of the churches of that 
day with slavery, their bitter opposition to the anti- 
slavery movement, and their persecution of such of 
their own members as were Abolitionists, are exposed, 
the attempt is made to build a wall for their pi'otection 
out of the toils and sacrifices of the men whom they 
opposed and denounced. In .other words, the fidelity 
of a proscribed and persecuted Christian minority is 
imputed as a merit to the whole church, while the at- 
tempt is made to conceal from the present and future 
generations the shameful action of the ruling majority. 
Does any Christian imagine that God can look with 
any other feelings than those of abhorrence and indig- 
nation upon such efforts to pervert the truth of history ? 
In the interest of Christianity itself, and as a warning 
to the ages to come, let the truth be proclaimed with- 
out fear or favor. Perish all the arts of evasion and 
concealment by which ambitious ecclesiastics would 
defend their craft at the expense of truth and justice, 
and hide the blot, not on Christianity, but on the 
escutcheon of a recreant church ! Judgment in this 
case, as of old, must begin at the house of God — with 
those, in other words, whose religious professions gave 
them power to mislead the community and pervert the 
right way of the Lord. 

But I may be asked, did the leaders of the churches, 
the men of influence and might, openly advocate slav- 
ery as a good thing? Oh, no indeed! If they had 
done that we should speedily have overmastered them. 
Their hostility was disguised under a great variety of 
specious pleas and pretences. They were "just as 
much opposed to slavery as the Abolitionists, but, — " 
and then would follow one or more of such allegations 
as these: Immediate emancipation A^ould be danger- 
ous ; the slaves would cut their masters' throats if set 
free ; they are not prepared for freedom ; they are 



160 GARRISON AND lUS TIMES. 

contented and happy, and wouldn't take their freedom 
if it were oilercd to them ; they ought not to be set free 
in this country, but to be taken bacii to Africa, T\'here 
they belong ; woukl you like to marry your daughter 
to a "nigger"? the Bible sanctions shivery; the curse 
of Ham doomed his posterity to bondage forever, and 
the Scriptures must l)e fullilled ; the chosen people of 
God held slaves by Divine permission ; Jesus did not 
condemn slavery, and Paul expressly sustained the 
system by sending the slave Onesimus back to his mas- 
ter ; the agitation of the subject will divide the churches 
and divert their attention from religious work ; the 
Abolitionists are too indiscriminate in their denuncia- 
tions ; of course, slavery in the hands of bad men is 
wrong, but there are thousands of good slaveholders, 
who treat their slaves kindly ; the slaves are property, 
and it would be cruel to deprive the. masters, without 
compensation, of that for which they paid their money ; 
the Constitution guarantees slavery, and without such 
guarantees the Union never could have been formed ; 
the discussion of the subject is dangerous to the peace 
of the country, and tends to a dissolution of the Union. 
In this list of excuses, which might be greatly extend- 
ed, there is not the slightest touch of caricature, as 
every Abolitionist of that day now living Avili testify. 
I have heard them myself, ad naiuseam, from the lips 
of clergymen and laymen, and read them a hundred 
times in the newspapers. Slavery, it was insisted, was 
not in itself a sin ; and, curiously enough, the inno- 
cent slaveholders Avere always those who were most 
enlightened, who were members of the Christian 
Church, and whose example, therefore, did more than all 
else to sustain the system. Men who would have 
blushed to affirm that pious men might be gamblers or 
pickpockets, were not ashamed to plead that slavery was 
sauctitied by the goodness and piety of the masters. 
The profane man, who swore at his slaves and treated 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 161 

them cruelly, was a great sinner of course ; but the 
religious man, who called them in to family prayers 
and instructed them in their duties to God and to one 
another, was no sinner. Slavery, when mixed up 
with oaths and curses and cruelty, was indeed dread- 
ful ; but when well seasoned with prayers, exhortations 
and hosannas, it was very tolerable ! Ecclesiastical 
bodies, feeling the necessity of seeming at least to 
oppose slavery, passed cunningly- worded resolves, in 
which "holding slaves for gain " was condemned, it 
being quietly assumed, if not asserted, that religious 
slaveholders held their slaves from other and his/her 
motives. Learned expositors of Scripture — men to 
whom the churches looked with confidence as safe guides 
— wrote infifcnious articles in mas^azines and reviews, 
in which they put forth all their dialectical skill and 
metaphysical subtlety to prove that holding prop- 
erty in man was not necessarily sinful, and that the 
demand for immediate emancipation was pure fanati- 
cism. These expositors found an echo in the religious 
press, and preachers, instead of rebuking iniquity iu 
high places, volunteered, in many instances, to 

" Hang another flower 
Of earthly sort about the sacred truth, 
And mix the bitter text 
With relish suited to the sinner's taste." 

Thus the slaveholders who felt the force of the warn- 
ings and rebukes of the Abolitionists, were comforted 
in their sin, and encouraged to resist the demand for 
emancipation. Under such influences is it any won- 
der that the South " hardened her neck as in the day 
of provocation," and went on from one step of mad- 
ness to another, until at last, in the hope of perpetuat- 
ing her diabolical system, she plunged into a bloody 
rebellion? And when slavery was thus defended in 
church and pulpit and in all the high places of the 
land, what wonder if the lower stratum of society 

21 



1G2 GAURISOX AND IIIS TBIES. 

caught the infection and became infuriated in its hos- 
tility to the Abolitionists? Is it strange that a meet- 
ing of the Abolitionists of New York, assembled on 
the Fourth of July to listen to a famous orator from 
Philadelphia, was broken up by a mob, and that for 
several successive days and nights the city was in the 
possession of the rioters, Avho assaulted private dwell- 
ings and places of public worship? I am not sure 
whether it was in this or' a subsequent riot that the 
Laii^ht Street Presbvterian Church, of which the Eev. 
Dr. Samuel Hanson Cox was the pastor, was violently 
assailed and much damaged. Dr. Cox had lately been 
in England, and having caught the anti-slavery tire 
from the clergy of that country, he came home full of 
zeal, and evidently impressed with the belief that he 
could speedily enlist the churches of this country in a 
crusade against slavery. He preached on the subject 
in his own pulpit with much warmth, and in one of his 
sermons, on the subject of prejudice against color, he 
happened to remark that Jesus, born as he was in an 
Oriental clime, was probably a man of a swarthy com- 
plexion, who, if living in this country, might not be 
received into good society. This observation was re- 
ported with exaggerations in the newspapers, and com- 
mented upon in such a way as to inflame the passions 
of the vulo^ar. While the mob was eno'as^ed in smash- 
ing the windows of the church, a gentleman who had 
been drawn to the spot by motives of curiosity, asked 
one of the rioters what was the reason for the attack. 
"Why," said the rioter, in reply, "Dr. Cox says our 

Saviour is a nicrsrer, and me if I don't think his 

church ought to be torn down." It was in these days 
that the house of Mr. Lewis Tappan, was sacked and 
its furniture destroyed. There were riots also in 
Philadelphia about the same time, in which the houses 
of many colored people were assailed, and several 
lives were sacrificed. The public mind throughout 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 163 

the country was in an inflamed condition, and the 
press, by misrepresentations and appeals to popular 
ignorance and prejudice, was constantly fanning the 
excitement. 

Lnt in the midst of this darkness there was a sudden 
gleam of light, which filled the hearts of the Aboli- 
tionists with fresh hope. The Hon. William Jay, 
noble son of a noble sire, espoused the cause, and put 
forth a Avork in its defence which will live fis a monu- 
ment of his intellectual power as well as of hisphilan- 
throphy and courage. It was entitled "An Inquiry 
into the Character and Tendencies of the American 
Colonization and the American Anti-Slavery Societies." 
It was full of light and truth, and admirably adapted 
to convince any candid person who would read it of 
the righteousness and wisdom of the anti-slavery 
movement. It appeared at a most opportune moment, 
and exerted a powerful influence in many quarters. 
But the author's noble name and his judicial eminence 
did not save him from the fierce denunciations of the 
pro-slavery press. He was roundl}^ abused on all sides, 
and not long afterward lost his place on the bench in 
consequence of his abolitionism. He was appointed 
a member of the Executive Committee of the Ameri- 
can Anti-Slavery Society, and filled the place for many 
years with great fidelity. His trained mind, his ripe 
iudirnient and wide le£!:al knowledsfe were a oTeat ac- 
quisition to the cause. He was a devoted Christian 
and a man of large influence in the Protestant Episco- 
pal Church. How faithful he was in rebuking that 
Church for its complicity with slavery, all the friends 
of the cause gratefully rememl:>er. His pen was ahva3's 
at the service of the oppressed, and his collected anti- 
slavery writings are a monument of his industry and 
devotion, and an illustration of the nobleness and the 
grandeur of the cause which the American churches 
rejected and contemned. 



164 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

This year (1834) was also signalized by the peace- 
ful emancipation of 800,000 slaves in the British West 
India Islands. The event took place on the 1st of 
August, and the Abolitionists awaited the result with 
intense interest, but not a shadow of doubt. They 
knew that obedience to God in the breaking of the 
chains of so many slaves would be perfectly safe ; and 
so it proved, for "^ not a drop of blood Avas shed; the 
negroes received their freedom Avith grateful joy as a 
boon from Heaven, and all the predictions of the pro- 
slavery party were falsified. Naturally enough, Amer- 
ican Abolitionists Avere mightily encouraged by this 
intelligence to persevere in their labors. 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 165 



X. 

The Lane Theological Seminary — Arthur Tappan and Dr. Beecher 
— A Remarkable Class of Students — Discussion of the Slavery 
Question — Conversion of the Students to Abolitionism — In- 
tense Excitement — The Students Become Missionaries — The 
Trustees Enact a Gag -Law — The Faculty Submits — Dr. Beechei 
Yields to Temptation and Goes into Eclipse — The Students Re- 
fuse the Gag and Ask for a Dismission — The Faculty in Self- 
Defence, etc. 

Mr. Arthur Tappan, not long after he procured 
Mr. Garrison's release from the Baltimore jail, gave 
ten thousand dollars to the Lane Theological Semi- 
nary, at Cincinnati, upon the condition that Dr. Ly- 
man Beecher should become its President. The 
churches of the North and East were then just begin- 
nin"" to perceive that the day was not far distant when 
the centre of moral and political influence in this 
country would be in the vast and then comparatively 
unsettled region drained by the Mississippi ; and 
hence there was much zeal and not a little organized 
effort to anticipate the oncoming tide of population 
that was so soon to till that immense territory, and to 
provide, in advance, educational institutions suited to 
its needs. The founding of Lane Seminary, at the 
gateway of the great West, was a part of this plan, 
and Dr. Beecher, being generally recognized as the 
leader of New England Revivalism, and the strongest 
representative of the advanced school of Orthodoxy at 
that day, Mr. Tappan thought that he of all others was 
the man best fitted to train a body of ministers for the 
new field. The Doctor, after considerable delay, and 
to the great grief of his Boston church, accepted the 



166 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

appointment. Such was his fame, that a large class of 
students, of unusual maturity of judgment and ripe- 
ness of Christian experience, was at once attracted to 
the Seminary. In the literary and theological depart- 
ments together, they numbered about one hundred and 
ten. Eleven of these were from difterent slave States ; 
seven were sons of slaveholders : one was himself a 
slaveholder, and one had purchased his freedom from 
cruel bondage by the payment of a large sum of 
money, which he had earned by extra labor. Besides 
these there were ten others who had resided for longer 
or shorter periods in the slave States, and made care- 
ful observation of the character and workings of slav- 
ery. The youngest of these students was nineteen 
years of age ; most of those in the theological depart- 
ment were more than twenty-six, and several were over 
thirty. Most if not all of them had been converted 
in the revivals of that period, and were filled with the 
revival spirit, in which Dr. Beecher so much delighted. 
A more earnest and devoted band of students was 
probably never gathered in any theological seminary. 
The Doctor had great pride as well as confidence in 
them. 

Soon after the Seminary was opened the students 
formed a Colonization Society, and were encouraged 
by the faculty to manifest such an interest in the slav- 
ery question as was compatible with a scheme for 
sending the negroes to Africa. So much, it was 
thought, might be permitted without endangering the 
union of the States or the peace of the churches, and 
with safety to the Seminary itself. In the winter of 
1833-34, after the publication of Garrison's ''Thoughts 
on Colonization," and the organization of the Ameri- 
can Anti-Slavery Society, with Arthur Tappan at 
its head, the students began to think about slavery 
and their duties to "the heathen at home." They 
proposed to hold meetings for the discussion of the 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 167 

subject, and so informed their teachers. Most of 
the faculty advised them to let the subject alone ; but 
Dr. Beecher said to the committee that waited upon 
him "Go ahead, boys — that's right; I'll go in and 
discuss with you." The students, thus encouraged by 
the President, were contirmed in the conviction that, 
as men intending to be ministers of the Gospel, in a 
slaveholding country, it was their duty to study the 
subject of shivery patiently and thoroughly; and, as 
there were among them representatives of the slave as 
well as of the free States, they thought a frank, open 
and friendly discussion would be both interesting and 
profitable. 

The discussion began in February, 1834. An earlier 
day was at first proposed, but the disputants on the 
pro-slavery side asked for more time to prepare them- 
selves for the argument. "You Abolitionists," they 
said, "have studied the subject ; the rest of us haven't ; 
you must give us more time." This request was 
cheerfully granted. When the time for opening the 
discussion came, it was agreed to consider two ques- 
tions, viz. : 

1st. Whether the people of the slaveholding States 
ought to abolish slavery at once, and without prescrib- 
ing, as a condition, that the emancipated should be 
sent to Liberia, or elsewhere, out of the country? 

2d. Whether the doctrines, tendencies, measures, 
spirit of the Colonization Society were such as to ren- 
der it worthy of the patronage of Christian people ? 

Dr. Be-echer, instead of appearing at the tirst meet- 
ing, according to his declared purpose, sent a note to 
Mr. Weld, saying that, upon the whole, he thought it 
was not best for him to be present, but that his 
daughter Catherine would attend as his representative. 
The students nfterwards learned that the Doctor 
changed his purpose by advice of the trustees. His 
daughter attended the tirst meeting, which was wholly 



168 GARRISON AND HIS TliVIES. 

occupied by the speaker to -^^hom b.ad been assigned 
the duty of opening the debate. The next day she 
sent a letter replying to the speaker's argument, and 
asking that it might be read to the students. This re- 
quest was complied with at the next meeting, the 
speaker who was thus reviewed answering Miss 
Beecher, point by point, as he read her communica- 
tion. One member of the faculty, Prof. John Mor- 
gan, honored himself by attending the discussion 
throufyhout. He was ever afterwards an outspoken 
Abolitionist. For the last forty-five years he has been 
a distinguished member of the theological faculty of 
Oberlin. 

The questions were taken up in their order, and 
each of them discussed, during nine evenings. I have 
often conversed with some of the men who took part 
in the debate, and they agree in assuring me that from 
first to last it was conducted in a candid, prayerful 
and Christian spirit. There was great earnestness, 
but no unworthy heat, and no impeachment of the 
motives of the disputants on either side. The whole 
discussion Avas marked by a strong desire to discover 
and follow the truth, and by a depth of fraternal feel- 
ing that was most remarkable. The leader in the dis- 
cussion Avas Theodore D. Weld, a young man from 
Connecticut, famous as a public speaker even before 
he entered the seminary ; a man of great originality 
and force of character, and highly esteemed for his 
piety mid self-consecration. He had travelled in the 
South, keeping his eyes and ears open, and gathering 
information in relation to slavery, Avhich enabled him 
to debate the subject intelligently as avoII as elo- 
quently. The result of the discussion, Avhen it is re- 
membered that the disputants embraced men from the 
slave as well as the free States, seems very remarka- 
ble. Upon the first question debated every student 
voted in the affirmative. ''The North gave up, the 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 169 

South kept not back," both being united in proclaim- 
ing immediate emancipation to be the right of the 
shive and the duty of the master. When the vote 
upon the second question was taken, one faint voice 
only was heard in the affirmative ; and that was 
the voice of a man who said in the be2:innino^ that he 
"defied the AboHtionists to wrins: out of liim a vote 
against the Colonization Society." If he was con- 
vinced, it was against his Avill, and so his opinion was 
not chansred. 

The students immediately organized an anti-slavery 
society, while the Colonization Society, previously 
formed, perished because the blood was all drawn from 
its veins. The anti-slavery work wrought in the minds 
and hearts of the students was so deep and thorough 
that it could only bo ascribed to the influences of the 
Divine Spirit. They were not only brought into 
closer affinity with each other, but a missionary spirit 
was kindled in their hearts, impelling them, like their 
Master, "to seek and to save the lost." Their atten- 
tion was naturally drawn to the three thousand colored 
people of Cincinnati, most of whom had been slaves. 
Thoy formed a committee, each member of which 
pledged himself to give one evening a week to teach- 
ing the colored people, and to furnish a substitute in 
case of emergency. Thus two evening schools, with 
pupils from fifteen to sixty years of age, were in prog- 
ress each evening, except Sunday. Augustus Wat- 
tles, one of the students, taking Mr. Weld with him, 
went to Dr. Beecher and opened his heart in substance 
as follows : " When I came here three months ago," he 
said, "from the State of New York, I had been for a 
year the President of a Colonization Society ; I had dis- 
cussed and lectured in its favor ; I did unremittingly 
what I now see was a £:reat wronsr. I must do what I 
can to undo that wrong. Here in Cincinnati are three 
thousand colored people, most of them in great igno- 

22 



170 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

ranee. Last niirbt I could not sleep. My present 
duty is plain, Avliich is to take a dismission fi'om tlie 
seminar}', throw myself amons^ these three thousand 
outcMtjts, establish schools, and work in all practicable 
ways for their elevation." Dr. Beecher, as well as 
Mr. AVattles, was moved to tears. The Doctor gave 
bim bis dismission, adding, "Go, my son, and may 
God be witb you." 

]\Ir. Wattles at once established, in one of the col- 
ored churches, a school, which he taught gratuitously. 
A colored man, once a Kentucky slave, gave bim his 
board ; another lodged him. His advent among these 
people was to them as life from the dead. In a few 
months, in co-operation with a committee of Abolition- 
ists in the seminary, he had established four more 
schools, taught by four noble young women, who came 
from Connecticut and New York, and one (a sister of 
Prof. Elizur Wright, Jr.) from the AYestern Reserve. 
All these came in the spirit of missionaries and mar- 
tyrs, identifying themselves with the colored people, 
living sometimes in their families, at other times board- 
ing themselves, and at all times and in all wa3^s doing 
with their mic^ht what their hands and hearts found to 
do for the three thousand victims of pro-slavery prej- 
udice and scorn, among whom they had cast their lot. 
"I know," says the friend from whom I have obtained 
these facts, " of no nobler consecration than that of 
these four young women, and of Augustus Wattles, in 
their tireless labors of love in the lanes and alleys of 
Cincinnati, in their unselfish ministry to the poorest 
of the suflering poor. One of the students, who was 
acquainted with Arthur Tappan, wrote to him the de- 
tails of Wattles's work at the outset, and of the offer 
of the four young women to teach, without price, the 
schools that he was establishing. Mr. Tappan innne- 
diately authorized the student to draw upon him at 
sight for the travelling expenses of the young women 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 171 

from their homes to Cincinnati ; for books, maps and 
fixtures for their schools and for that of Mr. AVattles, 
and carte blancJie for whatever in his judgment might 
bo necessary for their personal comfort, and to secure 
the most substantial practical results of their labors of 
love." 

Cincinnati, though on the northern bank of the Ohio, 
was saturated with the spirit of slavery. Its trade 
was derived largely from the South, and many of the in- 
habitants were from that region. It w^as scarcely less 
fatal to a man's reputation to be known as an Aboli- 
tionist there than it would have been in Richmond or 
New Orleans. The laws of Ohio in respect to negroes, 
having been dictated by emigrants from the South, 
were infamous in their proscriptive force. Against 
these cruel laws the churches lifted up no voice of pro- 
test, while religious men of every denomination aided 
in enacting arid enforcing them. The average Cincinna- 
tian was as ready to catch and return a fugitive slave as 
he was to return to his owner a stray horse or dog. 
The press of the city was hardly less servile to the 
slaveholders than that of Charleston or Mobile. No 
wonder, therefore, that the discussion in Lane Semi- 
nary, and the results to which it led, caused intense ex- 
citement in that slavery-ridden city. "Mr. Wattles 
and the lady teachers," says the friend to whom I am 
indebted for many of the facts in this narrative, ''were 
daily hissed and cursed, loaded w^ith vulgar and brutal 
epithets, oaths and threats ; filth and ofiVJ were often 
thrown at them as they came and went ; and the 
ladies especially were assailed by grossest obscenity, 
called by the vilest names, and subjected to every in- 
dignity of speech which bitterness and diabolism could 
frame. So also the students, known to be conspieous 
as Al)olitionists, were constantly in receipt of letters 
filled with threats, to be executed unless they discon- 
tinued lectures and teachings among the colored peo- 



172 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

plc. These letters often enclosed pictures of hearts 
thrust full and through with daggers; throats cut, 
heads cut off, bloody tongues hanging from l)leeding 
mouths, etc. One of the students had a special place 
of deposit for these Satanic curiosities, and kept piling 
them in till, from sheer nausea, his gorge so rose that 
he emptied the contents of the reeking tophet into 
their own place." 

Two of the students, James A. Thome of Kentucky, 
and Henry B. Stanton of Connecticut, went by invita- 
tion to the first anniversary of the American Anti- 
Slavery Society in New York, in 1834, and electriticd 
the country by their eloquent testimonies against slav- 
ery. Then there burst immediately upon Lane Semi- 
nary and its brave students a storm of indignation, 
before which the managers of the institution quailed. 
These young men might have gone to a meeting of the 
Bible Society or of the A. B. C. F. M., to make a plea 
in behalf of the heathen abroad, and no one would 
have accused them of any impropriety — nay, they 
would have been universally applauded for doing a 
work appropriate for young men studying for the min- 
istry ; but that they should presume to expose the 
wrongs of American slaves, or speak a word for over 
"two millions of human beings in this Christian Re- 
public," who, according to the testimony of the Pres- 
byterian Synod of Georgia and South Carolina, uttered 
but a few months before, were "in the condition of 
heathen, and in some respects in a worse condition," 
and such as "justly to bear a comparison with heathen 
in any part of the world," was regarded as an imperti- 
nence deserving the severest rebuke. Mr. Thome, by 
the revelations he made of slaveholding practices in 
Kentucky, of which he had ])een an eye-witness, made 
liimself an exile from his native State, and the relig- 
ious press of the country treated him as one who had 
received no more than he deserved ! 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 173 

In every part of the free States there were Chris- 
tian men, and proclly women not a few, wiio prayed 
to God niiiht and day that Lyman Beccher might be 
imbued with strength and courage to stand up nobly 
in the face of the storm that raged around him, and 
maintain the right of his pupils, as candidates for 
the Christian ministry, to investigate and discuss the 
subject of slavery, and to bear their testimony against 
it as a sin, and a mighty hindrance to the spread of 
the Gospel. They remembered the brave Avords ho 
had spoken against the then fasbional)le sin of intem- 
perance ; they called to mind his earlier denunciations 
of duelling as a crime ; they thought of his zeal to 
carry the Gospel to the dark places of the world ; 
and they were unwilling to believe that in this terrible 
crisis he would yield to the demands of the Slave 
Power, and seek to put a padlock upon the lips of the 
noble 3^oung men in whom he had taken so much 
pride, and upon whose future he had built such ex- 
alted hopes. They knew that, by force of all that 
was noblest and grandest in his nature, he belonged 
to freedom's side, and they could not bear to think 
that he would commit such an outrage upon himself 
as to go with the pro-slavery party in such a crisis. 
He had been my pastor in my fresh young manhood, 
and my affection for him was deep and strong. Ho 
had married me with his blessing to the wife of my 
youth, and had shown me many attentions, such as a 
young man prizes very highly when received from one 
so eminent ; and to the last moment I kept alive in my 
heart the hope that he would, in spite of previous 
waverings, make a final stand for freedom of speech, 
in the seminary as well as elsewhere, for the puriiica- 
tion of the church, and for the overthrow of the foul- 
est system of oppression with which the groaning earth 
was cursed. But I was doomed to a bitter disappoint- 
ment. The fancied temporary interests of the semi- 



174 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

nary and of the Presbyterian Church were in one 
scale, the eternal principles of liberty and the rights 
of the trampled and outraged slaves in the other; 
£ind the latter, by the touch of his hand, were made 
to kick the beam ! In the absence of the faculty, 
during vacation, the trustees had made a rule requir- 
ing the students to disband their anti-slavery societ}^ 
and, to give an appearance of consistency, the Colo- 
nization Society as well, though since the anti-slavery 
discussion it had been dead beyond the power of 
resurrection. Other restrictions were also put upon 
the students, for the purpose of effectually preventing 
the agitation of the slavery question in the future. 

One of the trustees was the Rev. Asa Mahan, after- 
wards for twenty years the President of Oberlin 
College. Of course he opposed the passage of the 
gag-law, which, as originally introduced to the board, 
forbade the students to discuss the question of slavery 
at all, even in private, — the words being "at the table 
and elsewhere." Dr. Mahan — so I learn from high 
authority — moved that these words be stricken out. 
The motion was at first stoutly opposed, but upon the 
suggestion being made that such a cast-iron rule, laid 
upon the students of a Theological Seminar}^ Avould 
savor more of the dark ages, the Inquisition, and the 
Star-chamber, than of the enlightenment of the nine- 
teenth century, it was voted to omit the words — on 
the score of policy ! 

Dr. Beecher and his associates in the fiiculty, on 
returnino: to their duties in the fall, had to decide 
whether they would or would not consent to enforce 
these disgraceful laws, set up in the interest of the 
Slave Power. Their conclusion to obey the behest 
of the trustees, though a cruel disappointment to the 
students and to the struggling friends of freedom 
throughout the country, was hailed with exultation by 
the pro-slavery press. It was a sad day for the slaves 



GARRISON AND HTS TIMES. 175 

and their friends, and a sad day also for Lane Seminary ; 
for the anti-slavery students, though plied with all the 
arts of persuasion of which Dr. Beecher was master, 
calmly refused to bend their necks to the yoke. Nearly 
all of the theological students, seventy or eighty in 
number, took their dismission from the institution, 
leaving it in a bare and crippled condition for years. 
Before doing so, however, they issued, under their 
own names, an eloquent and impressive appeal to the 
Christian public, prepared by a committee consisting 
of Theodore D. Weld, James A. Thome, George 
AYhipple, Henry B. Stanton, and Sereno W, Streeter. 
In the main, no doubt, it Avas the production of Mr. 
Weld, who, in point of native ability, it is not too 
much to say, was the peer of Dr. Beecher himself. 
After a long period of invaluable service in the anti- 
slavery field as lecturer and writer, he has for many 
years devoted his great powers, enriched by ripest 
culture and experience, to the instruction of the young. 
Mr. Thome, after serving fifteen years as a professor 
at Oberlin, became pastor of a church in Cleveland. 
He is now dead. Mr. Whipple was a professor at 
Oberlin for twenty years, then for a long period Sec- 
retary of the American Missionary Association, and 
finally, at the time of his decease, President-elect of 
Howard University at Washington. Mr. Streeter was 
for some years Professor of Mental and Moral Philos- 
ophy in an Ohio College, and has since been a pastor. 
Mr. Stanton, served the anti-slavery cause until 1840, 
after which he entered the legal profession. 

The answer of the faculty to the appeal of the 
students, though dialectically and rhetorically skilful, 
was weak and sophistical in argument. Some parts 
of it read stranirelv enousrh in the lij^ht of the present 
day. The faculty admitted that the students had not 
been drawn away from their studies, or led into any 
neglect of duty by the discussion which had given so 



176 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

much offence. " We never witnessed," they said, 
" more power of mind or capacity of acquisition, or of 
felicitous communication in popular eloquence, in the 
same number of individuals; and we add that the 
attainments of the past year, as developed by daily 
intercourse and by the closing examination, were 
honorable to them and satisfactory to us. We always 
have believed, and still do believe, that they have 
acted under the influence of piety and conscience." 
Why, then, were they gagged? Oh, because dis- 
cussions on slavery had "a bearing upon a divided 
and excited community ; " because the subject was 
one of "great national difficulty and high political 
interest ; " and because the discussion, though under 
the control of "piety and conscience," and pursued 
without any interruption of the course of study, had 
yet been " conducted in a manner to offend needlessly 
public sentiment, and to commit the seminary and its 
influences contrary" to the advice of the faculty. And 
so the faculty deliberately committed it and its influ- 
ences to the pro-slavery side ! ]\Iorcovcr, some of 
the students had been very "imprudent," One of 
them, who had gone from Walnut Hills to the city' 
to deliver an evening lecture to the colored people, 
being "too much indisposed to return to the seminary, 
accepted ('give ear, O Earth!') the hospitality of a 
respectable colored family to pass the night with 
them." Another, a teacher of a colored school ("hung 
be the heavens in black!"), actually "boarded in a 
colored family." How could it be expected that the 
people of Cincinnati would be able to reconcile their 
delicate feelings to outrages like these? And what 
would the American churches, which were sending 
their missionaries to war against caste in India, say to 
such imprudent disregard of caste at home? Worse 
than all (O horror of horrors!), "several female 
colored persons," wishing, doubtless, to see some of 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 177 

the students in regard to their missionary work, "vis- 
ited tlie seminary in a carriage," and were courteously 
received by the young missionaries ! The faculty, in 
this awful state of things, called the students together, 
n(>t to commend and encourage them for behaving 
worthily of their Christian profession, but to persuade 
them, in deference to the vulgar pro-slavery spirit of 
the times, "to abstain from the apparent intention of 
carrying the doctrine of intercourse with the colored 
people into practical effect," and pressing "a collateral 
benevolent enterprise in a manner subversive of the 
conlidence of the entire Christian community." "The 
entire Christian community ! " Let these words be 
remembered, for they show by plain implication what 
the Abolitionists in their godlike work had to contend 
with, and what was the real attitude of the church 
and the ministry at that time. We are asked to believe 
that the men who had not the courage to rebuke the 
meanest and most inhuman exhibition of caste that 
the world has ever seen were chosen of God to bear 
upon their shoulders the Ark of the Covenant in the 
presence of a scoffing world, and to keep the lire on 
God's altar from oroinii: out ! 

I verily believe that, if Lyman Beecher had been 
true to Christ and to liberty in that trying hour, the 
whole course of American history in regard to slavery 
would have been chansfed, and that the slaves miirht 
have been emancipated without the shedding of blood. 
The churches at that hour were halting between the 
good and the evil side, and it only needed the example 
of one strong man like Dr. Beecher to rally them to 
their legitimate place as the foremost champions of 
justice and liberty. He sacrificed a great opportunity, 
as Webster did in 1850, and linked his name forever 
with those of the trimmers and compromisers of 
that day. He inflicted a wound upon his own repu- 
tation from which he never recovered. He lost the 

23 



178 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

confidence of the friends of freedom ; while the 
champions and apologists of slavery respected him 
far less than they would if he had shown himself 
worth}" of his New England blood. As Lowell 
shigs : — 

" Man is more than [institutions] ; better rot beneatli the sod, 
Than be true to Church and State, -while we are doubly false to 
God." 

Some of the exiled students completed their educa- 
tion in the freer air of Obcrlin, while a few did noble 
service in the anti-slavery cause as lecturins: a£:ents. 
Conspicuous among the latter were Theodore D. Weld, 
Henry B. Stanton and Marius R. Robinson, who, by 
their logic and eloquence, did much to enlighten the 
people and create the public sentiment which finally 
led to the overthrow of slavery. Mr. Weld's Bible 
argument against slavery, his " Slavery as It Is, or, the 
Testimony of a Thousand Witnesses," and other pul)li- 
cations of a similar character, which were scattered 
broadcast by the American Anti-Slavery Society, ex- 
erted a iri'cat influence. Mr. Stanton was for a time 
one of the Secretaries of the National Society, devot- 
ing himself to the work of organizing the system of 
petitioning Congress for such anti-slavery action as that 
body could constitutionally take, and in the collection 
of funds for the Society's treasury. 

Of Mr. Robinson there is a tale to be told, which 
comins: irenerations ou2:ht to hear. A more <]^entle, 
sweet-spirited and self-consecrated man I have never 
known. He was exceedingly modest, never seeking 
conspicuity, but williug to work in any place, however 
obscure, to which duty called him. For a time, after 
leaving the Seminary, he devoted himself to the wel- 
fare of the colored people of Cincinnati, and, for aught 
that I know, was one of those who were so " impru- 
dent " as sometimes to take a meal with a colored fam- 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 179 

ily. It would have been just like him to do so, simple- 
hearted man that he was. Then he was for a time in 
the office of Mr. Birney's "Philanthropist," and, when 
the mob came to destroy the types, it was his tact and 
courage that saved the " forms " from being broken up, 
so that the paper of the week was printed in an adjoin- 
ing town and delivered to its subscribers on time. At 
a later day he entered the lecturing field in Ohio, Avhere 
he did noble service, enduring all manner of hardness 
like a good soldier of freedom. He was a capital 
speaker, with much that we call magnetic force for 
lack of a better term, and he was sure to make a deep 
impression wherever he could get a hearing. It was 
durin": the " reio^n of terror," and he was often harried 
by mobs and other exhibitions of pro-slavery malevo- 
lence. At Granville, Licking County, he was detained 
some time by severe illness. One day a constable ob- 
truded himself into his sick-room, and served upon 
him a paper, a copy of which I herewith present as a 
specimen of the pro-slavery literature of that da^^ : — 

''Licking Co., Granville Township, ss. 
'To //. C. Mead^ Constable of said Toivnship, Greeting. 

" Whereas, we, the undersigned, overseers of the poor of 
Granville Township, have received information that there 
has lately come into said Township a certain poor man, 
named Robinson, who is not a legal resident thereof, and 
will bo likely to become a township charge ; you are, there- 
fore, hereby commanded forthwith to warn the said Robinson, 
with his family, to depart out of said Township. And of 
this warrant make service and return. Given under our 
hands this first day of March, 1839. 

Charles Gilman, ) Overseers of 
S. Bancroft, j the Poor." 

It was nearly two years before this that he went to 
Berlin, Mahoning County^ to deliver several lectures. 
On Friday evening, June 2, 1837, he spoke for the 
first time, and notice was given that on the following 



180 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

Sunday be would deliver a lecture to vindicate the Bible 
from the charge of supporting slavery. This was more 
than the public sentiment of Berlin could bear, and so, 
on Saturday evening, he was seized by a bnnd of ruffians 
— two of them, I am told, members of the Presby- 
terian Church — dragged out of the house of the friend 
with whom he lodged, carried several miles away, and, 
besides many other insults, subjected to the cruel 
indignity of a coat of tar and feathers. In this condi- 
tion he was carried some miles further, and, in the 
darkness of a chilly Sunday moniing, having been 
denuded of much of his clothing, left in an open held, in 
a strange place, where he knew no one to whom to look 
for aid. After daylight he made his way to the near- 
est house, but the family was frightened at his appear- 
ance, and would render him no aid. At another house 
he was fortunate enough to lind friends, who, in the 
spirit of the good Samaritan, had compassion on him 
and supplied his needs. The bodily injuries received 
on that dreadful night affected his health ever after- 
wards, and even aggravated the pain of his dying 
hours. But they brought no bitterness to his heart, 
which was full of tenderness toward those who had 
wronijed him. He o^ave himself with fresh zeal to the 
work of reform, and few men have ever done more 
than he did to make purer and sweeter the moral 
atmosphere of the region in which he lived. In 1851 
he became editor of "The Anti-Slavery Bugle," at 
Salem, Ohio, and conducted it till the time of its dis- 
continuance, after the abolition of slavery was substan- 
tially assured. His editorial services were of great 
value, and won for him the admiration and the confi- 
dence of those who profited thereby. He died in 
Salem less than a year ago, respected and beloved by 
the whole comnninity. 

It seems incredible now that the pulpit of that day 
was generally silent in the presence of outrages like 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 181 

those inflicted upon Mr. Robinson, and that leading 
newspapers spoke of them rather to condemn the vic- 
tims than the authors. But such is the fact. Those 
who imaofine that the conflict witii the Slave Power 
began with the organization of the anti-slavery politi- 
cal parties need to be reminded that no such parties 
could have had an existence but for the grand moral 
struggle that preceded them, and that was sustained for 
years by men and women who endured, bravely and 
unflinchingly, the reproach and scorn of hostile com- 
munities, and whose property and lives were often in 
peril. 



182 GARRISON AND HIS TOIES. 



XI. 

Progress of tbo Cause — Madness of the Opposition — Southern 
Threats and Northern Menaces — Firmness of Arthur Tappan — 
Northern Colleges — Mutilation of Books — Beginning of a 
" Reign of Terror " — Movement of Conservatives in Boston 
— James G. Birney — Anti-Slavery Publications Sent to the 
South — Post-Office in Charleston Broken Open by a Mob — 
Pro-Slavery Demonstration in Boston — Mob of " Gentlemen 
of Property and Standing" — Garrison Dragged Through the 
Streets and Thrust into Jail — Dr. Channing's Tribute to the 
Abolitionists. 

From the time of the organization of the American 
Anti-Shivery Society in 1833, to the end of the fol- 
lowing year, the anti-slavery agitation grew more and 
more intense, until at last it arrested the attention of 
the whole country. "The Liberator" in Boston, and 
" The Emancipator " in New York, had each enlarged 
its circuhition. "The New York Evangelist," under the 
editorship of the Rev. Joshua Leavitt, was doing the 
cause good service in the places most under the influ- 
ence of the revivals of that period, while a small num- 
ber of other papers in diflerent parts of the country 
'svere friendly to the movement. The American Soci- 
ety was sending out its agents and scattering its tracts 
and other pu])lications broadcast through the land. 
Anti-slavery societies were springing up on every side, 
ministers here and there ventured to preach against 
slavery, and there were movements in some of the 
ecclesiastical bodies that seemed to presage a favorable 
chanire in the attitude of the churches. There were 
signs of an eft'ort on the part of the Methodists of New 
England to break the silence so long imposed by the 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 183 

leaders of that church. Hitherto all efforts to crush 
the new movement had not only proved unsuccessful, 
but actually aided in fanning the excitement. The 
South was full of rage and fury, and the apologitsts of 
slavery at the North were growing more and more 
reckless and unscrupulous. The air was full of mis- 
representations of the principles and designs of the 
Abolitionists, who were pelted by the pro-slavery press 
everywhere Avith the most odious epithets, such as "fa- 
natics," " disorganizers," " amalgamationists," "trai- 
tors," "jacobins," " incendiaries," " cut-throats," " infi- 
dels" — the latter term being directed especially 
against those who were so bold as to deny that the 
Bible sanctioned slavery. This tide of abuse, issuing 
from political and religious journals of wide influence, 
had a powerful effect upon the lower stratum of soci- 
ety in the cities and large towns, and indeed in smaller 
places as well. Anti-slavery meetings were often in- 
terrupted, and in some instances broken up by mobs ; 
and instead of condemning these outrages, popu- 
lar newspapers apologized for them, throwing the 
blame not upon those who organized and took part 
in them, but upon the Abolitionists, who, it was 
alleged, persisted in discussing a subject with which 
they had no right to intermeddle. The enemies of 
the cause appeared to be under the delusion that it 
could be crushed out by persecution and violence ; 
that the men Avho had undertaken the work of abolish- 
ing slavery were so wanting in courage that they would 
fly from the field to save their property and their per- 
sons from harm. These men had somehow contrived 
to read the lessons of history backwards, imagining 
that the way to stop a conflagration was to pour oil 
upon the flames ! 

Such was the state of things at the beginning 
of the year 1835, which has often been described as 
pre-eminently the "mob year" in the history of the 



184 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

cause. True, the pro-sliivery mobs neither began nor 
ended with that year, but they were more numerous 
then than at any previous or subsequent time. The 
social, ecclesiastical and commercial pressure brought 
to bear upon leading Abolitionists during that year 
was tremendous. Arthur Tappan, especially, was be- 
set by leading merchants and moneyed men, presidents 
of banks and insurance companies, and by influential 
members of the churches, who besought him, by his 
regard for his public and private reputation, as well as 
for his business interests, to resign the office of Presi- 
dent of the American Anti-Slavery Society and with- 
draw himself from the asfitation. "You ask me," he 
said in reply, " to betray my principles, to be false to 
God and humanity : I will be hanged first ! " The 
Eev. Samuel J. May, while sitting upon the platform 
at the anniversary of the American Anti-Slavery Soci- 
ety in 1835, w\as called to the door by a partner in 
one of the most prominent mercantile houses in New 
York, who said to him, " Mr. May, we are not such 
fools as not to know that slavery is a great evil, a 
great wrong. But it was consented to by the founders 
of our Republic. It was provided for in the Constitu- 
tion of our Union. A great portion of the property 
of the Southerners is invested under its sanction ; and 
the business of the North as well as the South has be- 
come adjusted to it. There are millions upon millions 
of dollars due from Southerners to the merchants and 
mechanics of New York alone, the payment of which 
would be jeopardized by any rupture between the 
North and the South. We cannot afford, sir, to let 
you and your associates succeed in your endeavor to 
overthrow slavery. It is not a matter of principle 
with us ; it is a matter of business necessity. AV^e 
cannot afford to let you succeed ; and I have called 
you out to let you know, and to let your fellow-labor- 
ers know, that we do not mean to allow you to sue- 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 185 

ceed. We mean, sir," said he with increased empha- 
sis, — "we mean, sir^ to put you Abolitionists down — 
by fair means if we can, by foul means if we must."* 
Beyond all doubt, this merchant expressed thcfeelinpfs 
and the purposes of his class. The virus of slavery 
at that day poured in a strong tide through every ave- 
nue of commerce between the North and the South. 
Northern men, many of them prominent in the church 
and liberal contributors to benevolent societies, took 
security for debts owed them at the South, in the 
shape of mortgages upon "slaves and souls of men," 
and, in case of foreclosure, sold the human chat- 
tels and put the proceeds in their pockets, with as 
little fear of censure irs^ they would have experienced 
in selling so many sheep or swine. In many instances 
such men occupied the most eligible pews in churches, 
and frowned upon ministers if they even dared to pray 
in public for the slaves. In Northern colleges, the 
whole power of faculties and trustees was exerted to 
prevent agitation among the students. In some of 
tliese colleges were bodies of Southern young men, 
Avho stood ready to display the "manners of the plan- 
tation" upon such of their fellow-students as dared to 
whisper a word against the divinity of slavery. Pub- 
lishers at the North, in reprinting English books, 
erased from their pages the passages likely to give 
offence to the traffickers in human flesh. Even the 
American Tract Society and the Methodist Book Con- 
cern euiraii'ed in this work of mutilation, and hardlv 
had the grace to be ashamed of it when they were ex- 
posed. At the ver}^ time when slavery was thus ob- 
truding itself into every Northern interest and relation, 
dcmandin<>* of us the meanest of all services in its be- 
half, we were told that it was none of our business, 

*Mr. May's "Recollections," p. 127. 
24 



186 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

and that the discussion of the subject was nothing less 
than treason against the government. 

The spirit of the South at this time is indicated in 
the following paragraph from " The Richmond AYhig," 
one of the most respectable and influential journals of 
that section : — 

" Let the hell-bounds at the North beware. Let them not 
foci too much security in their homes, or imagine that they 
-who throw firebrands, although from, as they think, so safe 
a distance, will be permitted to escape with impunity. 
There arc thousands now animated with a spirit to brave 
every danger to bring these felons to justice on the soil of 
the Southern States, whose women and children they have 
dared to endanger by their hell-concocted plots. We have 
feared that Southern exasperation would seize some of the 
prime conspirators in their very beds, and drag them to meet 
the punishment due their offences. We fear it.no longer. 
We hope it may be so, and our applause as one man shall 
follow the successful enterprise." 

The Columbia (S. C.) "Telescope" uttered itself 
thus : — 

*' Let us declare, through the public journals of our coun- 
tr}^ that the question of slavery is not and shall not be 
open to discussion — that the very moment any private indi- 
vidual attempts to lecture us upon its evils and immorality, 
in the same moment his tongue shall be cut out and cast 
upon the dunghill." 

It was not alone the politicians of the South who 
were meditating schemes of vengeance ; the clergy 
were filled with the same evil spirit. 

"Let your emissaries," said the Rev. Thomas S. 
Withcrspoon of Alabama, in a letter to the editor of 
the "Emancipator," "dare to cross the Potomac, and 
I cannot promise you that your fate will be less than 
Haman's. Then beware how you goad an insulted but 
magnanimous people to deeds of desperation." 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 187 

"Let them" [the Abolitionists], said the Eov. Wm. 
S. Pkimmcr, D. D., of llichmond, "understand that 
they will be caught if they come among us, and they 
will take good care to keep out of our way. If the 
Abolitionists will set the country in a blaze, it is but 
fair that thev should receive the first warmini]^ of the 
Gre." 

" At the approaching stated meeting of the Presby- 
tery," said the llev. Robert N. Anderson, D. D., writ- 
ing to the sessions of the Presbyterian churches of Han- 
over (Va.) Presbytery, "I design to offer a preamble 
and string of resolutions on the subject of the treason- 
able and abominably wicked interference of the North- 
ern and Eastern fanatics with our political and civil 
rights, our property, and our domestic concerns. If 
there be any stray goat of a minister among you, 
tainted with the blood-hound principles of abolitionism, 
let him be ferreted out, silenced, excommunicated, 
and left to the public to dispose of in other respects." 

"If you wish to educate the slaves," said the liev. 
J. C. Postell (Methodist) of South Carolina, WTiting 
to Rev. La Roy Sunderland of New York, "I will tell 
you how to raise the money without editing ' Zion's 
Watchman.' You and old Arthur Tappan come out 
to the South this Avinter, and they will raise a hundred 
thousand dollars for you. New Orleans itself will be 
pledged for it." 

During this same year tw^enty thousand dollars re- 
■ward was offered in New Orleans for the seizure of 
Arthur Tappan, and ten thousand dollars in some 
other place for that of Rev. Amos A. Phelps. Several 
other Northern Abolitionists were honored in a similar 
way, and the iires of persecution burned licrcely. In 
March, 1835, the No3X's Academy in Canaan, N. II., 
w^as opened for the reception of pupils without dis- 
tinction of color. The whole State w^as thereby 
thrown into a fierce commotion. " The New Hamp- 



188 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

shire Patriot" at Concord, and many other papers, 
teemed from week to week with the most vulgar at- 
tacks upon the school and its managers, until, on the 
lOtli of August, a great body of the inhabitants of 
Canaan and the neighboring towns assembled together, 
and, with a team of one hundred yoke of oxen, 
drair^red the school buildins: from its foundations and 
left it on the highway, a useless ruin. The leader of 
this mob was a member of the Congregational church 
in Canaan. The outracre was rcsrarded with coolindif- 
ference, if not with approbation, by the great body of 
citizens in all that region. 

At Worcester, Mass., on the same day, the Rev. 
Orange Scott, a Methodist clergyman of high standiug, 
while delivering an anti-slavery lecture, was assailed 
by a son of cx-Govcrnor Lincoln, who, with the assist- 
ance of an Irishman, tore up his notes and offered him 
personal violence. Not far from the same time, the 
Rev. George Storrs, another Methodist clergyman, of 
the highest character, while delivering a lecture in 
Northtield, N. II., was arrested on the charge of being 
" a common rioter and brawler," and sentenced by a 
magistrate to three months imprisonment in the house 
of correction. The case was appealed to a higher 
tribunal, and the sentence was not executed. The 
man who instigated this proceeding was afterwards a 
Democratic member of Congress. 

The incidents above related were but the beginning 
of the reign of terror, of which I shall have more to 
say hereafter. I wish now to notice briefly an effort 
made in Boston at the beginning of the year (1835) 
to organize a conservative anti-slavery society, — one 
that should not displease the slaveholders, nor make 
any uncomfortable excitement at the North. The 
most obstinate and virulent of the clerical opponents 
of abolition were at the head of this scheme ; and the 
purpose frankly avowed by some of them was to " put 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 189 

down Giirrison and his friends." A call for a conven- 
tion was, by a curious oversight, issued at first in 
terms so broad as fairly to include the Abolitionists, 
and leave open the question of forming a new so- 
ciety. The ])lunder was discovered before the con- 
vention assembled, and a new call issued, but not in 
time to prevent the attendance of some leading Abo- 
litionists, who were prepared to discuss the question 
with their opponents, and to show them that if they 
were really opposed to slavery and prepared to adopt 
efficient measures for its overthrow, there was no need 
whatever of a new organization. If the call had not 
been changed, the promoters of the scheme would 
have been sure to be outvoted by clergymen and 
laymen of their own denominations. The new society 
was wanted, not as a means of opposing slavery, but 
only as a feint to deceive the unwary and the unsus- 
pecting, and make an appearance of doing something, 
while actually doing nothing to any purpose. The 
name of the society was " The American Union for 
the llelief and Improvement of the Colored Race ; " 
and the constitution was so worded, as while it was 
seemingly opposed to slaveholding, it did really per- 
mit the cunning apologists of slavery to become 
members and to control its action. " The system of 
slavery " Avas pronounced " wrong," while nothing was 
said against individual slaveholding. A motion to 
substitute the word " sinful" for the word "wrong" was 
most strenuously objected to, on the ground that the 
object was to "conciliate and unite," and that the 
word wronsT would not be so ofiensive to ijentle- 
men of the South, and would better accord with the 
views and feelings of wise men at the North." One 
of the clergymen present said : " Many of the men 
on whom we are to operate are not professors of 
religion, and the word vvrong does not sound to them 
as the word sin does : it is less offensive." Brave 



190 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

reformers these, who were more concerned not to 
fjive oflence to the slaveholders and their friends than 
they were on account of the wrongs done to the 
slaves ! The new societ}', being rooted in nothing but 
hatred of the Abolitionists and a desire to put down 
the anti-slavery agitation, soon went to its own place. 
Its supporters, finding that they could do nothing by 
its means to accomplish their real purpose, and that 
the public saw through their thin disguise, abandoned 
it to its fate. Founded upon no principle of genuine 
hostility to slavery, it died an ignominious death, 
while most of its members became even more than 
ever embittered against the Abolitionists. 

In the midst of the persecutions of this period the 
Abolitionists were cheered by the intelligence that a 
distinguished slaveholder, Mr. James G. Birney, had 
espoused their cause, and given freedom to his slaves. 
He was a native of Kentucky, but for some years had 
been a distinguished member of the bar at Iluntsville, 
Ala. He had for several years been the agent of the 
Colonization Society in the Southwestern States. As 
early as 1832 he met Theodore D. Weld at the house 
of Kev. Dr. Allen of Iluntsville, and in conversing 
with him was led into a closer examination of the moral 
character of slavery. The final result was a conviction 
in his mind of the sinfulness of slaveholding, and of 
his own duty to emancipate his slaves. He. thereupon 
summoned them all into his presence, acknowledged 
the wrong that he had done them in holding them in 
bondajre, and announced that he had executed deeds of 
emancipation for each and all of them, and that hence- 
forth they would be free. He offered to retain them 
all in his service and to pay them wages, if they 
should desire to remain with him. The negroes, 
instead of proceeding at once, as according to the 
current pro-slavery theory they ought to have done, 
to cut Mr. Birney's throat and burn his house over his 



GAKRISON AND HIS TIMES. 191 

head, gratefully took up the "shovel and the hoc," and 
went to work for him with right good-will. Naturally 
enough, Mr. Birney was received with open arms by 
the Abolitionists. AVhercver he was announced to 
speak crowds flocked to hear him. As Mr. May 
says : "He was mild yet firm, cautious yet not afraid 
to speak the whole truth, candid but not compromis- 
ing, careful not to exaggerate in aught, and equally 
careful not to concede or extenuate." But the North- 
*ern sympathizers w^ith slavery, though they could 
not charge him with any violence or fanaticism, and 
though they could not deny that he was a calm, 
dignified and cultured gentleman and Christian, liked 
him not a whit better than they did Mr. Garrison. 
The tide of detraction against the anti-slavery cause 
was not diminished or softened in the least by his 
appearance amoug ns. Indeed, he was the object of 
pecuHar hatred, because, having lived in the South 
from his birth, he was able to throw a flood of light 
upon the workings of the slave system, and thus to 
show the folly and absurdity of all the defences made 
of it by its apologists and supporters. 

The American Anti-Slavery Society, soon after its 
formation, adopted the practice of sendiug its most im- 
portant publications — those especially which explained 
its principles and designs — to leading citizens at the 
South. This would seem to have been required on the 
score of principle as w^ell as courtesy. Seeking the 
abolition of slavery, not by external force, but by ap- 
peals to the reason and judgment as w^ell as the con- 
science of the masters, the Abolitionists desired noth- 
ing so much as to have their movements thoroughly 
understood at the South. They w^ould gladly have 
sent thither living agents, to meet the holders of slaves, 
and, if possible, persuade them, not only for their own 
peace of mind, but as a means of advancing their pe- 
cuniary interests, to give freedom to their bondmen. 



192 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

Ill the beginning, indeed, it was their hope that the 

Southern people would shortly become reasonable 

enough to permit, if not to invite, the presence of such 

a^T^ents. Meanwhile, the least that they could do was 

to send their publications to men whose names were 

found in public documents or obtained from private 

sources. This they did openly, availing themselves 

of the postal service of the United States. Not one 

of their documents was ever addressed by them to a 

slave. To him, indeed, they had nothing to say, save 

to entreat him never to attempt to redress his wrongs 

by violence, but to wait patiently for his chains to be 

broken by 

" Tlie mild arms of Truth and Love, 
Made mighty through, the living God." 

In the summer of 1835, large quantities of anti-slav- 
ery publications were sent through the mails to citizens 
of the South, from the anti-slavery office in New York. 
A tremendous excitement in that part of the country 
was the consequence. If, indeed, the Society had fur- 
nished every slave with a bowie-knife, and advised him 
to cut his master's throat therewith at the earliest pos- 
sible moment, the rage of the South could hardly have 
been greater than it was. The documents were pro- 
nounced incendiary, and though they were addressed 
exclusively to white men, and generally to the fore- 
most slaveholders, it was coolly assumed, at the North 
as well as at the South, that they were intended to 
excite an insurrection and deluge the South in blood ! 
Fresh torrents of misrepresentation and abuse were 
thereupon heaped upon the heads of the Abolitionists, 
whose voices of explanation and protest were drowned 
in a worse than Niagara roar of calumny. In Charles- 
ton, on the 29th of July, the post-office was broken 
open by a mob, and the anti-slavery publications that 
had accumulated therein, and which the postmaster 
had obligingly left in a pile for the convenience of the 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 193 

rioters, were taken out and burned in the presence of 
an exultant crowd. Shortly afterwards a iiublic meet- 
ing was held to denounce the " incendiaries " of the 
North, and to complete the work of the mob by ferret- 
ing out and punishing any Abolitionist, or friend of 
Abolitionists, who might happen to be in the city. 
"This meeting," said the "Charleston Courier" in its 
report, "the clergy of all denominations attended in a 
body, lending their sanction to the proceedings, and 
adding by their presence to the impressive character of 
the scene." John G. Whittier was moved to embalm 
this impressive scene for the benefit of coming genera- 
tions, in a poem entitled "Clerical Oppressors," a few 
stanzas of which are here copied : — 

*' Just God ! and these are they 

Who minister at Thine altar, God of Right! 
Men who their hands, with prayer and blessing, lay 
On Israel's Ark of light ! 

What ! preach and kidnap men ? 

Give thanks, and rob Thy own afflicted poor? 
Talk of Thy glorious liberty, and then. 

Bolt hard the captive's door ? 

Pilate and Herod friends ! 

Chief priests and rulers, as of old, combine! 
Just God and holy! is that church, which lends 

Strength to the Spoiler, Thine ? - . * 

•») 

How long, O Lord, how long 

Shall such a priesthood barter truth away, 
And, in Thy name, for robbery and wrong 

At Thy own altars X)ray ? 

Woe to the priesthood ! woe 

To all whose hire is with the price of blood I 
Perverting, darkening, changing, as they go, 

The searching truths of God ! 

Their glory and their might 

Shall perish ; and their very names shall be 
Vile before all the people, in the light 

Of a world's liberty ! " 
25 



194 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

The postmaster at Charleston took the responsibility 
of refusing to deliver anti-slavery ])ublications until 
he should receive instructions from Washington. The 
postmaster-general, Amos Kendall, a man of New 
Enirland birth, told his subordinate that he had " no 
legal authority to exclude newspapers from the mail, 
nor to prohibit their carriage or delivery on account of 
their character or tendency, real or supposed." Hav- 
ing made this admission, he proceeded to say: "We 
owe an oblis^ation to the laws, but a higher one to the 
communities in which we live ; and, if the former be 
permitted to destroy the latter, it is patriotism to dis- 
regard them. Entertaining these views, I cannot sanc- 
tion, and will not condemn the step you have taken." 
The scoiiers at a Higher Law easily discovered a lower 
one when it was necessary for the accomplishment of 
their evil designs. Postmasters generally at the South 
followed the example set them at Charleston, and this 
action on their part was widely commended at the 
North. 

Shortly after the occurrences above related there 
were movements for holding great public meetings in 
the chief cities at the North. And what does the 
reader suppose was their object? Was it to protest 
against the outrages at Charleston and elsewhere, and 
to vindicate the liberty of the press and the sanctity of 
the mails ? On the contrary, it was to apologize, openly 
or covertly, for those outrages, and to intensify the 
public hostility against the Abolitionists on account of 
their lawful and peaceful efforts to abolish slavery. In 
other words, it was to "put the Abolitionists 
DOAVN," and thus protect the South from all danger of 
interference with her system of slavery. New York, 
Philadelphia, Boston, and some of the smaller cities 
gave utterance to the prevailing madness. The Abo- 
litionists asked for Faneuil Hall, wherein to explain 
their objects and defend themselves against the assaults 



GAEEISON AND HIS TIMES. 195 

of their enemies. Their request was rudely denied ; 
but on the 15th of August the doors of the "Old 
Cradle " were opened to their enemies and made to 
echo with their misrepresentations and calumnies. The 
mayor took the chair, and the blood of Boston, already 
at fever heat, was still more inflamed by intemperate 
harangues from the lips of Harrison Gray Otis, Richard 
Fletcher and Peleg Sprague. Daniel Webster, for 
some unexplained reason, was reserved for later immo- 
lation upon the bloody altar of slavery. The resolu- 
tions adopted were full of the most preposterous 
assumptions in the interest of slavery, and of the 
grossest libels upon the Abolitionists. It was not long 
after this that Mr. Garrison was hung in eflSgy at his 
own door, and there seemed only too much reason to 
fear that his life might fall a prey to the madness of 
the time. In the midst of all these proceedings, which 
menaced the overthrow of the freedom of speech and 
of the press, the destruction of tha sanctity of the 
mails, and the perpetual rule of the Slav© Power, the 
Pulpit of New England was either apologetic or dumb ; 
or, if here and there some minister, braver than his 
brethren, ventured to remonstrate, his single voice 
seemed only to emphasize the surrounding silence. 

The Faneuil Hall meeting, by intensifying the pub- 
lic hostility to the Abolitionists, led naturally to the 
Boston mob of " gentlemen of property and standing," 
on the 21st of October, 1835. As I have stated in a 
previous chapter, the avowed design of the mob was 
to do violence to Mr. George Thompson, the eloquent 
anti- slavery lecturer from England. The annual meet- 
ing of the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society was 
advertised to be held on that day in the Anti- Slavery 
Hall, 46 Washinirton Street. A laro^er hall had been 
engaged for the purpose of holding the meeting at an 
earlier date, but the owners, fearing a mob, declined 
to open its doors; and, after a week's postponement. 



196 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

the meeting was notified to be held as above. A false 
report that Mr. Thompson would deliver an address on 
the occasion added to the public excitement. The 
morning papers referred to the meeting in terms well 
calculated to excite a mob. One of them — " The 
Commercial Gazette " I think it was — said it was " in 
vain to hold meetings in Faneuil Hall ; in vain that 
speeches are made and resolutions adopted, assuring 
our brethren of the South that we cherish rational and 
correct notions on the subject of slavery, if Thompson 
and Garrison, and their vile associates in this city, are 
permitted to hold their meetings in the broad face of 
day, and to continue their denunciations of the plant- 
ers of the South. They must be put down if we 
would preserve our consistency. The evil is one of 
the greatest magnitude ; and the opinion prevails very 
generally that if there is no law that will reach it, it 
must be reached in some other way." This and other 
similar articles had their natural results in the gather- 
ing of an immense mob — of " gentlemen of property 
and standing," one of the papers called it — that tilled 
all the streets in the vicinity of the meeting. The 
anti-slavery women, as they passed into the hall 
through this crowd of chivalrous friends of the South, 
were assailed in a rude and indecent fashion. They 
entered quietly, and went calmly about their business. 
The president, Miss Mary S. Parker, read a portion 
of Scripture, and then lifted up a firm but gentle voice 
in fervent prayer to God for his blessing upon the 
slave's cause, for the forgiveness of its deluded ene- 
mies and persecutors, and for succor and protection to 
its friends in the hour of peril. She oflered thanks 
that " though there were many to molest, there were 
none that could make afraid." "It was," says Mr. 
Garrison, who was present by invitation to address the 
meeting, "an awful, sublime and soul-thrilling scene — • 
enough, one would suppose, to melt adamantine hearts, 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 197 

and make even fiends of darkness stagger and retreat. 
Indeed, the clear, untremulous voice of that Christian 
heroine in prayer occasionally awed the ruffians into 
silence, and was heard distinctly even in the midst of 
their hisses, yells and curses ; for they could not long 
silently endure the agony of conviction, and their con- 
duct became furious." The Anti-Slavery Office was 
separated from the hall by a board partition, and to 
this Mr. Garrison retired, by advice of the President, 
in company with Mr. C. C. Burleigh, who locked the 
door to preserve the contents of the Depository from 
being destroyed. The mayor, who had shown his 
sympathy with the object which the genteel ruffians had 
in view by presiding with alacrity at the Faneuil Hall 
meeting, instead of taking the necessary means to dis- 
perse the mob and protect the Society, entered the 
meeting to command the ladies to retire. Seeing that 
no efforts of theirs could induce him to do his sworn 
duty, they adjourned to the house of one of their num- 
ber, encountering again, as they passed into the street, 
the jeers and curses of the ruffian crowd. The mob 
having bravely demolished the anti-slavery sign, which 
the mayor had ordered to be given up to them, and 
appropriated the Testaments and prayer-books that had 
been thrown out of the windows, next turned their 
attention to Mr. Garrison, whose place of retreat was 
easily discovered. " We must have Garrison ! Out 
with him! Lynch him!" they cried. By advice of 
the mayor he attempted to escape at the rear of the 
building. He got safely from a back window on to 
a shed, making, however, a narrow escape from falling 
headlong to the ground. He reached a carpenter's 
shop, where a friend tried to conceal him, but in vain. 
The rioters, uttering a yell, furiously dragged him to 
a window, with the intention of throwing him from 
that height to the ground. But one of them relented 
and said, "Don't kill him outright." So they drew 



198 GAERISON AND HIS TIMES. 

him back, and coiled a rope around his body, probably 
intending:: to dn\<x him throuo-h the streets thercAvith. 
He descended to the street by a ladder raised lor the 
purpose. He fortunately extricated himself from the 
rope, but was seized by two or three of the leading 
rioters, powerful and athletic men, by whom he was 
dragged along bareheaded, a friendly voice in the crowd 
shoutinsr, "lie shan't be hurt! he is an American!" 
This seemed to excite sympathy in some breasts, and 
they reiterated the same cry. Blows, however, were 
aimed at his head by such as were of a cruel spirit, 
and at last they succeeded in tearing nearly all the 
clothes from his body. Thus was he dragged from 
Wilson's Lane into State Street, in the rear of the 
City Hall, over ground that was stained with the blood 
of the first martyrs in the cause of Liberty and Inde- 
pendence, in the memorable massacre of 1770; and 
upon which, only a few years before, had been unfurled, 
with joyous acclamations, the beautiful banner pre- 
sented by the young men of Boston to the gaUant 
Poles. At the south door of the City Hall the mayor 
attempted to protect him ; but as he was unassisted by 
any show of authority or force, he was quickly thrust 
aside. There was a tremendous rush to prevent 
him from beins: taken into the hall. For a time 
the conflict was desperate ; but at length a rescue was 
effected by a posse that came to the help of the mayor, 
and he was taken up to the mayor's room. Here he 
was furnished with needful clothing, the mayor and his 
advisers declaring that the only way to preserve his 
life was to commit him to jail as a disturber of the 
peace ! Accordingly a hack was got ready at the door, 
and, supported l)y Sheriff Parkman and Ebenczcr 
Bailey, Esq. (the mayor leading the way), he was 
put into the vehicle without much difficulty ; the 
crowd not recognizing him at first in his new 
garb. 



GAREISON AND HIS TIMES. 199 

"But now," says Mr. Garrison, " a scene occurred 
that baffles description. As the ocean, lashed into 
fury by the spirit of of the storm, seeks to wbehn the 
adventurous bark beneath the mountain waves, so did 
the mob, enraged by a series of disappointments, rush 
like a whirlwind upon the frail vehicle in which I sat, 
and endeavor to drag me out of it. Escape seemed a 
physical impossibility. They clung to the wheels, 
dashed open the doors, seized hold of the horses, and 
tried to upset the carriage. They were, however, 
vigorously repulsed by the police — a constable sprung 
in by my side — the doors were closed — and the driver, 
lustily using his whip upon the bodies of his horses 
and the heads of the rioters, happily made an opening 
through the crowd, and drove at a tremendous speed 
for Leverett Street. But many of the rioters followed 
even with superior swiftness, and repeatedly attempted 
to arrest the progress of the horses. To reach the 
jail by a direct course was found impracticable ; and 
after going by a circuitous direction, and encountering 
many hair-breadth escapes, we drove up to the new 
and last refuge of liberty and life, when another des- 
perate attempt Avas made by the mob to seize me, but 
in vain. In a few moments I was locked up in a cell, 
safe from my persecutors, accompanied by two delight- 
ful associates — a good conscience and a cheerful mind. 
In the course of the evening several of my friends 
came to my grated window, to sympathize and confer 
with jne, wMth whom I held a strengthening conversa- 
tion until the hour of retirement, when I threw myself 
upon my prison-bed, and slept tranquilly." 

In the morning the prisoner inscribed upon the walls 
of his cell, with a pencil, the following lines : — 

"William LI03TI Garrison was put into this cell on 
Wednesday afternoon, Oct. 21, 1835, to save him from the 
violence of a •• respectable ' and influential mob, who sought 



200 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

to destroy him for preaching the abominable and dangerous 
doctrine that ' all men are created equal,' and that all oppres- 
sion is odious in the sight of God. ' Hail Columbia !' 
Cheers for the Autocrat of Russia, and the Sultan of 
Turkey ! 

'' Reader, let this inscription remain till the last slave in 
this despotic land be loosed from his fetters. 

" When peace within the bosom reigns, 

And conscience gives the approving voice, 
Though bound the human form in chains, 
Yet can the soul aloud rejoice. 

" 'Tis true ray footsteps are confined — 
I cannot range beyond this cell ; 
But what can circumscribe my mind ? 
To chain the winds attempt as well ! 

" Confine me as a prisoner — but bind me not as a slave. 
Punish me as a criminal — but hold me not as a chattel. 
Torture me as a man — but drive me not like a beast. 
Doubt my sanity — but acknowledge my immortality.'^ 

"In the course of the forenoon," says Mr. Garrison, 
"after passing through the mockery of an examination, 
for form's sake, before Judge Whitman, I was released 
from prison ; but at the earnest solicitation of the 
city authorities, in order to tranquillize the public 
mind, I deemed it proper to leave the city for a few 
days, accompanied by my wife, whose situation was 
such as to awaken the strongest solicitude for her 
life." 

Those who imagine, as too many ill-informed per- 
sons do, that the anti-slavery movement began with 
the organization of the Liberty, the Freesoil, or the 
Republican party, are the victims of a great mistake. 
They little know by what toils and sacrifices a high- 
way for those parties was cast up by men and women 
"svho trod the field Avith bleeding feet, and stood firmly 
for the right in the presence of such fiery trials as be- 
set only the paths that martyrs are called to tread. If 
the Abolitionists at this earlier period had given way 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 201 

before the minions of the slave power, the Liberty 
p^irty could not have been born for a century, if in- 
deed the republic could in that case have been saved 
from destruction. Dr. Channinsr, thou^fh critical of 
some of their modes of action, gave them unqualified 
.praise for their brave defence of the freedom of speech. 
j"To them," he said, "has been committed the most 
% important bulwark of libert}^, and they have acquitted 
themselves of the trust like men and Christians. Of 
such men I do not hesitate to say, that they have ren- 
dered to freedom a more essential service than any 
body of men among us. The defenders of freedom 
are not those who claim and exercise rights which no 
one assails, or who Avin shouts of applause by well- 
turned compliments to liberty in the days of her tri- 
umph. They are those who stand up for rights whicli 
mobs, conspiracies, or single tyrants put in jeopardy ; 
wdio contend for liberty in that particular form which 
is threatened at the moment by the many or the few. 
To the Abolitionists this honor belongs. From my 
heart I thank them. I am myself their debtor. I 
am not sure that I should this moment (Nov. 4, 1836,) 
write in safety, had they shrunk from the conflict, had 
they shut their lips, imposed silence on their presses, 
and hid themselves before their ferocious assailants. I 
thank the Abolitionists that in this evil day they were 
true to the rights Avhich the multitude were ready to 
betray. Their purpose to sufler, to die, rather than 
surrender their dearest liberties, taught the lawless 
that they had a foe to contend with whom it was not 
safe to press."* This tribute, be it remembered, was 
written almost twenty years before the organization of 
the Republican party, and before the Liberty pa rtj^ was 
conceived. I would not detract in the least from the 
praise due to the noble men who fought the Slave 

* Cliauning's Works iu six volumes — Vol. IL, pp. 159, 160. 

26 



202 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

Power by means of a political party, on the floor of 
Congress and elsewhere, without flinching, hampered 
as they were by the compromises of a blood-stained 
Constitution ; but I would have them rememl)er that 
the cause met its Thermopylae before any anti-slavery 
political party was born, and that whatever was done 
through the ballot-box was accomplished by the aid of 
moral forces previously accumulated, and that alone 
made such a political party possible. 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 203 



XII. 

Effects of the Boston Mob — Francis Jackson's Bravery — Harriet 
Martiueau — Mrs. Chapman and her Work — Mobs in Moutpelier, 
Vt., and Utica, N. Y. — Gerrit Smith — Alvan Stewart — Burning 
of Pennsylv^auia Hall — Attempts to Put the Abolitionists Down 
by Lavy — Demands of the South — Gov. Everett — Prosecution 
of Dr. Crandall — Flogging of Amos Dresser — Requisition from 
the Governor of Alabama — Harsh Language. 

The "gentlemen of property and standing" in 
Boston were not long in discovering that tlie weapons 
which they had formed for the suppression of the 
anti-shivery agitation did not prosper. One of the 
first effects of the riot was seen in the bravery of 
Francis Jackson, who, while Mr. Garrison was in jail 
and the rioters were yet patrolling the city and exult- 
ing- that they had "put the Abolitionists down," sent 
a letter to the President of the Female Anti-Slavery 
Society, offering his dwelling for its use whenever it 
should desire to hold another meetino*. This brave 
act thrilled the hearts of the Abolitionists and awed 
their enemies. How brio^htlv " shines a o'ood deed in 
a naughty world !" The invitation was accepted, and 
on the 19th of November a memorable meetinsr was 
held in Mr. Jackson's house. It Avas a solemn occa- 
sion, for those present were not sure that the house 
would not be sacked or burned. Harriet Martiueau 
was then in Boston. She had travelled extensively in 
the country, at the South as well as at the North. 
Conservative Unitarians and others had done their ut- 
most to prejudice her against American Abolitionists ; 
but she deemed it her. duty, in view of the persecu- 



204 GAKRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

tions to Avbioh they were subjected, to iittcnd this 
meeting, and see for herself Avhether the aspersions 
cast upon them were just. Being invited to address 
the meeting, she responded promptly. "I had sup- 
posed," she said, "that my presence here would be 
understood as showing my sympathy with you. But 
as I am requested to speak, I will say what I have said 
through the whole South, in every family where I have 
been, that I consider slavery inconsistent with the law 
of God, and incompatible with the course of his pro- 
vidence. I should certainly say no less at the North 
than at the South concerning this utter abomination, 
and now I declare that in your principles I fully 
agree." This brave, yet modest little speech brought 
upon Miss Martineau a tide of denunciation only less 
violent than that which ha^ beat for months on the 
head of her noble countryman, George Thompson. 
Up to that moment her society had been courted by 
the elite of Boston, especially by the Unitarians, with 
whom she was religiously associated. But now she 
was slighted as one who had committed an inipardon- 
able otifence. Her brave Avords were imbued with 
power, and while they greatly cheeried and encouraged 
the Abolitionists, they tilled the pro-slavery party with 
rage. Her experience at this time prepared her to 
write that admirable little work, " The Martyr Age of 
America," which did so nuich to bind the hearts of 
Abolitionists in En^^land to the struo^iflino: friends of 
the cause in the United States. From that day to the 
end of our conflict her powerful pen was always 
at the service of the cause ; and I doubt if any 
other person ever did so much as she to give the peo- 
ple of Great Britain a clear understanding of the 
nature of our struggle, of the mighty obstacles it 
encountered, and of the wa3's in which they could 
help us. 

Ten righteous men, it is said, would have availed to 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 205 

save the ancient city of Sodom. Boston was spared 
for one ; but that one was in himself a host, and able to 
put ten thousand enemies of freedom to flight. Ever 
afterwards, to the day of his death, which occurred 
during the war of Kebellion, Mr. Jackson was fore- 
most in the anti-sUivery conflict. He served for many 
years as President of tlie Massachusetts Anti-Shivery 
Society, presiding at its meetings with a dignity that 
commanded the public respect ; his house was ever 
open to the faithful workers in the cause, and to shel- 
ter the fugitive slave ; and he gave generously of his 
substance for the support of lecturers and the printing 
and distribution of anti-slavery periodicals and tracts. 
Modest and unobtrusive in manner, he was firm as a 
rock in his adherence to the cause, quick to discern, and 
prompt to repel danger, and bravo enough to endure 
without flinching and without complaint the reproaches 
heaped upon his head by the minions of slavery. His 
name in Boston, where he was cotispicuous for integ- 
rity in public aftairs as Avell as in private life, was a 
tower of strens^th. 

Another name, that of a woman, was brought into 
wide conspicuity amidst the events above related. 
Maria Weston Chapman, the wife of Mr. Henry 
G. Chapman, a Boston merchant, and for many 
years the treasurer of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery 
Society, was the pride and charm of the most cul- 
tured social circle in Boston. She had enjoyed some 
cf the best opportunities of culture which Europe 
offered to an ambitious American girl, and encountered 
the temptations to a worldly and fashionable life to 
which so many others yielded. Possessing in an 
eminent degree the graces of person, the intellectual 
acquirements and the wit that are so fascinating in 
womanhood, she yet consecrated herself and her great 
gifts to the service of a righteous but most unpopular 
cause. She was a member of the Boston Female 



206 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

Anti-Slavery Society before the mob, and a close 
observer of the events of that trying period ; and not 
long afterwards she gave to the world a most remark- 
able brochure, entitled " Eight and Wrong in Bos- 
ton," in which the conspirators against Liberty were 
depicted in their true character and held up to the 
scorn of mankind for all coming time. She was the 
cotemporary historian of Boston's mob of " gentlemen 
of property and standing," and the leading actors 
therein cowered under the well-deserved strokes of 
her lash. Her pamphlet is of great historic value. It 
will forever bring a blush of shame to the cheeks of 
some Avhose misfortune it will be to trace their line of 
ancestry through that stormy period. But such are 
the reveuges of Time. 

From this period to the close of the conflict Mrs. 
Chapman occupied a position of great usefulness and 
power. Her counsel in emergencies was invaluable. 
She was quick to detect and expose any sign of 
treachery to the cause, and any attempt to lower the 
standard to meet the requirements of intriguing and 
selfish men. Her executive power was remarkable. 
She could keep more irons in the fire, without burning 
one of them, than any person I ever knew. For many 
successive years she was an inspiring force in the 
cause, laying out plans of labor on the widest fields, 
and superintending their execution with unsleeping 
vigilance. Her pen, keen as a Damascus blade, was 
like a lance in rest, ready on the instant for any 
required service. During many years a very large 
proportion of the funds used in carrying on the cause 
were raised by means of an annual fair in Boston. Of 
this fair Mrs. Chapman and her three sisters (Miss 
Anne Warren, Miss Caroline, and Miss Deborah 
Weston) were the chief managers. The most beauti- 
ful articles for the fair were contributed by the faithful 
friends of the cause in Great Britain and France, with 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 207 

whom Mrs. Chapman was in constant correspondence, 
and who are entitled to the eternal gratitude of the 
American people for the help they gave ns in our 
struggle to abolish slavery. I might mention the 
names of some of these foreign helpers, but T fear 
that in doing so I might seem to be invidious in omit- 
ting others equally worthy of recognition. In con- 
nection with the fair, and as a special means of 
advancing the cause, Mrs. Chapman published a beau- 
tiful little annual, "The Liberty Bell," which she 
edited with rare skill and taste. The volumes, a 
dozen or more in number, are worthy of preservation 
as memorials of the cause and specimens of the litera- 
ture it produced. In them will be found contributions 
from a large number of the most prominent anti- 
slavery writers of the time, both men and women. 

In a jell cVespril, b}^ James Russell Lowell, published 
many years ago, and embracing a description of 
prominent persons attending one of the annual fairs 
in Boston, I find these lines : — 

*' There was Maria Cliapman, too. 
With lier swift eyes of clear steel blue, 
The coiled-up mainspring of the Fair, 
Originating everywhere 
The expansive force, without a sound, 
That whirls a hundred wheels around j 
Herself meanwhile as calm and still 
As the bare crown of Prospect Hill ; 
A noble woman, brave and apt, 
Cumaia's sybil not more rapt, 
"Who might, with those fair tresses shorn, 
The Maid of Orleans' casque have wornj 
Herself the Joan of our Arc, 
For every shaft a shining mark." 

The 21st of October, 1835, is memorable, not alone 
for the Boston riot, but for two other similar attempts 
to put the Abolitionists down by violence. One of 
these took place at Montpelier, the capital of Vermont, 
and in the vciy church where, a little more than three 



208 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

years before, I had delivered my first anti-slavery 
lecture. Samuel J. May, who, on account of his 
gentleness of speech, was called our Apostle John, 
was the speaker of the occasion. Xo sooner did he 
begin his address than a mob, led by some of the 
foremost citizens of the place, commanded him to be 
silent, and the meeting was broken up. For the state 
of public sentiment which made this and other similar 
riots possible in that State, no other newspaper Avas 
so much responsible as the "Vermont Chronicle," 
which, from the very beginning of the anti-slavery 
movement, had persistently misrepresented its princi- 
ples and designs, and done what it could to make its 
champions odious. It was the organ of the Congi'e- 
gationalists, the most numerous and influential sect 
in the State, and hence its power for mischief was 
very great. It was for this reason that Vermont was 
so long tolerant of the desi2:ns of the Slave Power. 
Nothing could be more offensive to a pure conscience 
than the hair-splitting, Bil)le-perverting metaphysics 
by means of which the brothers Tracy prevented the 
churches of Vermont from taking their true position 
as the uncompromising opponents of the slave system. 
The moral atmosphei-e of the State is even now not 
quite disinfected of the taint derived from that source. 
But there was a far more formidable riot on the 
same day, in Utica, N. Y., where a convention to form 
a State Anti-Slavery Society was to meet. A worse 
than Ephesian uproar ensued. Leading citizens de- 
clared that the convention must be broken up ; Utica 
must not be disgraced by an assembly of "fanatics and 
incendiaries." The court-house having been engaged 
for the convention, a public meeting of the pro-slavery 
party was held in advance, and arrangements were 
made to pre-occupy the building before the hour at 
which the Abolitionists were to asseml)le, and by any 
means to prevent them from effecting their object. 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 209 

The whole city was in an uproar, and the dis- 
turbance was led by eminent citizens. The conven- 
tion, composed of from six to eight hundred delegates, 
was driven from the court-house to the Second Pres- 
byterian Chnrch, where it barely succeeded in organ- 
izing the proposed society before it was broken up. 
The chief of the mob was the Hon. Samuel Beardsley, 
tlien a representative of the district in Congress, who 
declared that "the dis^^race of havino^ an Abolition 
Convention held in the city would be a deeper one 
than that of twenty mobs," and "that it would be bet- 
ter to have Utica razed to its foundations, or to have 
it destroyed like Sodom and Gomorrah, than to have 
the Convention meet here." 

Up to this time, Gerrit Smith, though an earnest 
opponent of slavery, had adhered to the Colonization 
Society and kept aloof from the anti-slavery cause. 
He came to the Utica Convention to be a spectator of 
its proceedings, and to inform himself more fully of 
the designs and purposes of the Abolitionists. He 
was so disgusted, shocked and alarmed by the action 
of the pro-slavery party, and so impressed by the 
earnestness, devotion and patience of the members of 
the Convention, that he felt the hour had come for him 
to take his stand openly with the friends of immediate 
emancipation. He invited all the members of the 
Convention to repair to Peterboro, his place of resi- 
dence, thirty miles distant, and finish their proceed- 
ings. A large proportion of the members accepted 
the invitation, and on the next day they assembled in 
the Presbyterian church of Peterboro, where Mr. 
Smith made an address of surpassing eloquence and 
power, in which he avowed his purpose from that time 
forth to act with the Abolitionists. The accession to 
our ranks of a man of such his^h social and moral dis- 
tinction filled us with encouragement and hope, and 
helped us to bear patiently the persecution that still 

27 



210 G.VRRISOX AND HIS TIMES. 

remained for us. Ever afterwards his name was a 
tower of strength for the cause. His pen, his voice, 
his purse were always at its service. His house was 
a retiiire for the fiiijitive slave and for the toil-worn 
lecturer, and of his great wealth he contributed gener- 
ously to the promotion of every form of anti-slavery 
effort. 

It did not require a mob to make an Abolitionist of 
that eminent advocate, Alvan Stewart. With his clear 
head, his warm love of liberty, and his keen sense of 
the wronof of turninsf a man into a chattel, he could be 
nothinof else. Bnt while the mob was not needful to 
his conversion, it did rouse him to put forth his great 
enercfies in behalf of the cause. His commandins^ elo- 
quence as a speaker, his quick perception of the ludi- 
crous, his power of sarcasm and ridicule, combined 
with his high moral tone, his indignation at every 
form of injustice, and his imperturbable good-nature, 
made him a powerful champion of our struggling 
enterprise. He died in the very maturity of his 
powers, revered and lamented by all who could appre- 
ciate his sterling worth. He was more especially 
interested in the ])()litical aspects of the slavery ques- 
tion, and if he had lived he would no doubt have taken 
a high place in that group of great men whose services 
in the cause of freedom form so large a part of the 
history of the last tw^cnty-live years. It will be a mis- 
fortune if a personage so unique, and Avhose life exhib- 
ited such varied powers, should fail to lind a biog- 
rapher. 

On the 17th of May, 1838, Pennsylvania Hall, a 
commodious structure erected by the friends of free- 
dom in Philadelphia, at a cost of $40,000, and conse- 
crated to the free discussion of all subjects interesting 
to American citizens, was burned by a mob three days 
only after its dedication. During those three days 
the hall was used for meetings to promote education 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 211 

and temperance, and to awaken sympathy for the In- 
dians and the skives. The pro-shivery party was 
£>Teatly excited by the fact that at last there was a 
hall in the city which would be open to Abolitionists in 
common with others, and a mobocratic spirit was 
roused. The anti-slavery meetings had been ad- 
dressed by Charles C. Burleigh, Arnold Butfum, 
Alvan Stewart, William Lloyd Garrison, Angelina 
Grimke Weld, Maria Weston Chapman and Abby 
Kelley. The building was surrounded and menaced 
by a mob. The city authorities took no efficient steps 
to prevent a riot. The mayor informed the proprie- 
tors that if they would hold no meeting on the evening 
of the 17th, but place the building in his hands, he 
would disperse the mob. But the rioters did not prove 
as tractable as he expected. In spite of his feeble and 
inadequate efforts to protect the building, it was 
burned to the ground under his very eyes. The 
conflagration was no doubt regarded with pleasure by 
a very large proportion of the inhabitants of the city, 
including not a few men of wealth and high social 
standing. In short, the public sentiment of the city 
aftbrded no protection against such outrages. The 
burning of the hall was followed during the next two 
days by brutal attacks upon the colored people, their 
churches, institutions and private dwellings. The 
"Shelter for Colored Orphans "was set on fire, and 
colored people were attacked while passing quietly in 
the streets. Durino: all of these outra^^es the conduct 
of the mayor was most disgraceful. 

The mobs of which I have given an account may be 
taken as samples of a great number of similar dis- 
turbances wliich occurred about the same time in 
different parts of" the country, and which I have not 
room even to mention. The whole land was hot with 
pro-slavery wrath, ready at any moment to break out 
in riotous demonstrations. There was, in fact, an 



212 GARRISON AND HIS TBIES. 

epidemic of mobs, which, if not directly instigated by 
men of respectable standing in society, were at least 
winked at by such men as well as by the press. The 
announcement, almost anywhere, of an anti-slavery 
lecture was pretty sure to evoke a disturbance. This 
state of things, in some portions of the country, 
continued to a greater or less extent from 1834 to 
1838, and did not wholly cease even then. 

But not by mobs alone was the attempt made to 
suppress the anti-slavery agitation. From the very 
bes-innino^ there were mutterino^s of a desisrn on the 
part of the slaveholders and their Northern allies to 
effect this object by law — by common law, where the 
courts were sufficiently compliant, and elsewhere by 
statutory enactments. The demands for such laws 
on the part of the Southern press were alike frequent 
and insolent ; and they were sometimes echoed at 
the North. As early as March, 1832, Judge Peter 
Thatcher of the Boston Municipal Court, in a charge 
to the Grand Jury, pronounced it " an undoubted mis- 
demeanor, and indictable as such at common law," to 
2)ul)lish in one State with the intent to send it to an- 
other, a paper designed to excite slaves to murder their 
masters ; it being alwaj^s taken for granted that such 
was the o])ject of the anti-slavery papers. "If any 
publications," said the Judge, " which have a direct 
tendency to excite the slave population of other States 
to rise upon their masters, and to involve their fami- 
lies and property in a common destruction, are here 
published and circulated freely, may not the citizens 
of those States well imagine that such publications 
are authorized by our laws? If such publications 
were justified and encouraged here, it would tend to 
alienate from each other the minds of those whose 
best political happiness and safety consist in preserv- 
ing in its full strength the bond of the Union." The 
aro^ument of the Jud<2re was drawn out at length, and 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 213 

not only published promptly in the Boston news- 
papers, but ill the "American Jurist," a periodical of 
hi<^h repute in the legal profession. It was itself as 
infamous a libel upon a body of peaceable, orderly 
citizens as was ever published ; and, in the then state 
of the public feeliug toward Abolitionists, was a thou- 
sand-fold more likely than " The Liberator " to incite 
men to commit mureler. 

It was not far from the same time that " The Boston 
Courier" (Joseph T. Buckingham, editor), which had 
been distinguished above other journals in that city 
for its zeal for freedom of the press, came out une- 
quivocally in favor of enacting statute laws for the 
suppression of "The Liberator." "The people of 
New England," said the editor, "would stop this 
publication with as much zeal as the citizens of 
Charleston." 

Another Massachusetts man, the Hon. William 
Sullivan, wrote a pamphlet in 1835, in which the 
same doctrine was put forth. "It is to be hoped and 
expected," he said, "that Massachusetts will enact 
laws declaring the printing, publishing and circulating 
of papers and pamphlets on slavery, and also the 
holding of meetings to discuss slavery and abolition, 
to be public indictable oflences, and provide for the 
punishment thereof in such manner as will more 
effectually prevent such offences." 

Symptoms like these of a readiness on the part of the 
North to put the Abolitionists down by law naturally 
encouraged the South to demand legislation for that 
purpose. Gov. McDuffie, in his message to the Leg- 
islature of South Carolina, after declaring slavery to 
be "the corner-stone of the Eepublican edifice," and 
that the laboring population of any community, 
" bleached or unbleached," is a "dangerous element in 
the body politic," and after predicting that the labor- 
ing people of the North would be virtually reduced 



214 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

to slavery within twentj^-fivc years, declared that "the 
laws of every convmiinity should punish such inter- 
ference," as that of the Abolitionists with slavery, 
" with death without benefit of clergy." The Legis- 
lature, responding to the Governor's recommendation, 
promptly resolved, "That the Legislature of South 
Carolina, having every conlidence in the justice and 
friendship of the non-slaveholding States, announces 
her confident expectation, and she earnestly requests, 
that the government of these States will promptly 
and eHectually suppress all those associations within 
their respective limits purporting to be abolition so- 
cieties." The Legislatures of North Carolina, Ala- 
bama and Virginia adopted resolutions of the same 
character. These demands were sent in due form to 
the governors of the non-slaveholding States. In 
what spirit were they received ? I have not been able 
to find a single instance in which they awakened the 
least degree of surprise or indignation, or called forth 
such a rebuke as they deserved. My impression is 
that most of the Northern governors contented them- 
selves with a formal and perfunctory transmission of 
them, without comment, to their respective Legisla- 
tures. Not so, however, the governor (W. L. Marcy) 
of New York, who took occasion to say that, " without 
the power to pass such laws " as the South demanded 
" the States would not possess all the necessary means 
for preserving their external relations of peace among 
themselves." AVhatever measure of individual popu- 
larity Governor Marcy may have gained at the South by 
this slavish utterance, he did not succeed in persuad- 
ing the Legislature of the Empire State to enact the 
proposed laws. The people in those days were less 
servile than their political leaders. In the Legislature 
of Ithode Island, even before the Southern demands 
were received, a l)ill in conformity to those demands 
was actually presented by a committee to which the 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 215 

subject bad been referred. It was defeated l)y the 
strenuous eflorts of Mr. George Curtis (father of 
Georo^e AVilliam Curtis) and Mr. Thomas W. Dorr. 

Edward Everett was at that time Governor of 
Massachusetts. In 182G he had revealed his servility 
by declaring on the floor of Congress that "there 
was no cause in which he would sooner buckle a 
knapsack to his back and put a musket on his shoul- 
der than that of putting down a servile insurrection 
at the South." "The great relation of servitude," ho 
added, "in some form or other, with greater or less 
departure from the theoretic equality of men, is insep- 
arable from our nature. Domestic slavery is not, in 
my judgment, to be set down as an immoral and 
irreligious relation. It is a condition of life as well 
as any other to be justified by moralitjs religion and 
international law." Mr. Everett having been trained 
for the pulpit, these utterances surprised and shocked 
some people who had not quite unlearned the teaching 
of an earlier day in respect to slavery. Mr. C. C. 
Cambreling, a member of Congress from New York, 
and a native of South Carolina, sharply rebuked the 
recreant New Englander on the spot. If he (Mr. 
Everett) had learned such sentiments in the University 
of Gottingen, he should, said Mr. Cambreling, instead 
of returning to his native land, have journeyed east- 
ward, "followed the course of the dark-rolling Dan- 
ube, crossed the Euxine, laid his head upon the 
footstool of the Sultan, and besought him to place his 
feet upon the neck of the recreant citizen of a recre- 
ant republic." We need not wonder that a man of 
such antecedents, occupying the post of Governor of 
Massachusetts, insulted the people of that Common- 
wealth in his response to the demands of his Southern 
masters. " Whatever by direct and necessary opera- 
tion," said this smooth-faced champion of slavery, " is 
calculated to excite an insurrection among the slaves, 



216 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

has been held, by highly respectable legal authority, 
ail offence against the people of the Commonwealth, 
which may be prosecuted as a misdemeanor at common 
law." "The patriotism of all classes," he added, 
" must be invoked to abstain from a discussion which, 
by exasperating the master can have no other effect 
than to render more oppressive the condition of the 
slave ; and which, if not abandoned, there is great 
reason to fear, will prove the rock on which the Union 
will split." In other words, the South would consent 
to remain in the Union only upon the condition that 
Northern freemen should wear a padlock upon their 
lips ! 

This portion of the Governor's message, together 
with the insolent resolves of the Southern Legislatures, 
w^as referred to a joint committee of the two Houses, 
of which Senator George Lunt of Newburyport, a 
doughface of the lirst water, was chairman ; and there 
was only too much reason to fear that in the then state 
of public sentiment, Massachusetts might be disgraced 
by some sort of compliance with the Southern de- 
mands. Neither press nor pulpit had the least appre- 
ciation of the crisis, and it depended alone upon the 
Abolitionists to make such resistance as they could to 
this effort to destroy the sacred right of free discus- 
sion. Mr. Garrison and his friends promptly bestirred 
themselves, and the scheme was defeated. The con- 
duct of the chairman of the committee toward Dr. 
Follen, William Goodell, and others, who appeared 
before them to explain and defend the Abolitionists, 
was so arbitary and insolent as to excite general indig- 
nation. 

Mr. Lunt, in behalf of the committee, made a report, 
in which he spoke of the demands of the South as " of 
the most solemn and affecting character ; as appeals to 
our justice as men, to our sympathies as brethren, to our 
patriotism as citizens ; to the memory of the common 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 217 

trials and perils of our ancestors and theirs ; to all the 
better emotions of our nature ; to our respect for the 
Constitution ; to our regard for the laws ; to our hope 
for the security of all those blessings which the Union 
and the Union only can preserve to us." The conduct 
of the Abolitionists was pronounced " not only w^rong 
in policy, but erroneous in morals," and such as to 
justify the censures that the Southern Legislatures had 
bestowed upon them. And yet Mr. Lunt did not 
venture to propose a compliance with the Southern 
demand for penal enactments ; his courage was only 
equal to the presentation of resolutions expressing 
" entire disapprobation of the doctrines avowed and 
the general measures pursued by such as agitate the 
general question of slavery." But even this vicious 
little mouse, which the Committee had brought forth 
with so much and such painful labor, was laid on the 
table, whence it fell into that bottomless limbo reserved 
for things evil. The country members, though not 
Abolitionists, had too much common-sense to follow 
the advice of the Committee. 

No person known to be an Abolitionist could travel 
in those days at the South except at the peril of his 
life. If any one was suspected, in view of circum- 
stances ever so slight, to be an enemy of slavery, he 
was sure to meet with some indignity. Meanwhile 
Southerners could travel at the North, bring their 
slaves with them, go where they listed, and denounce 
Abolitionists as incendiaries and cut-throats at every 
step, and no one thought of imposing any restriction 
upon their liberty ! It was an offence against public 
opinion to oppose slavery, but none whatever to apo- 
logize for it or defend it outright. Dr. Reuben Cran- 
dall (a brother of Prudence Crandall, the founder of 
the Canterbury school for colored girls), a gentleman 
of the highest character, went to Washington to teach 
botany. On the 11th of August, 1835, he was arrested 

28 



218 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

and thrown into jail, on the charge of circulating 
incendiary publications, Avith a view to excite an insur- 
rection of slaves. The evidence against him was, that 
some of his botanical specimeus were wrapped in old 
copies of anti-slavery papers, which had probably been 
bought in the market as waste paper, and that he had 
lent an anti-slavery pamphlet to a white citizen. The 
passages read in court from these publications were no 
more inflammatory than many that may be found in 
the writings of Jefierson and Patrick Henry. The 
prosecuting attorney, however, made a desperate efibrt 
to secure his conviction, though without success. But 
his close confinement for a long time in a damp dun- 
geon brought upon him a lingering consumption, which 
terminated his life in 1838. 

Amos Dresser, a young theological student (a native 
of Berkshire County, Mass.), went to Nashville, 
Tenn., in the summer of 1835, to sell the "Cottage 
Bible." His crime was that he was a member of an 
anti-slavery society, and that he had some anti-slavery 
tracts in his trunk. For this he was flogged in the 
public square of the city, under the direction of a 
Vigilance Committee, composed of the most distin- 
guished citizens, some of them prominent members of 
churches. He received twenty lashes on the bare back 
from a cowskin. On the previous Sunday he had 
received the bread and w^ine of the communion from 
the hands of one of the members of that Vigilance 
Committee ! Another member of the Committee was 
a prominent Methodist, whose house was the resort 
of the preachers and bishops of his denomination. 

In the latter part of 1835, Governor Gayle, of 
Alabama, demanded of the Governor of New York 
that Ransom G. Williams, publishing agent of the 
American Anti-Slavery Society, should be delivered up 
for trial under the laws of Alabama (a State in which 
he had never set his foot), on an indictment found 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 219 

against him for publishing in " The Emancipator," of 
!New York, these two sentences : — 

" God commands, and all nature cries out, that men 
should not be held as property. The S3'stem of making 
men propert}^ has plunged 2,250,000 of our fel!ow-counUy- 
men into the deepest phj-sical and moral degradation, and 
they are eveiy moment sinking deeper." 

The land was ringing with the charge that the 
Abolitionists were incendiaries, and enscajred in 
stuTuig up an insurrection of slaves ; but the Grand 
Jury of Tuscaloosa, with something less than a cart- 
load of anti-slavery publications before it, cited the 
above sentences as the Avorst, the most incendiary 
that they could find. Read them again, and see how 
false and hollow was the pretence that the Abolition- 
ists brought themselves into difficulty by a reckless 
use of harsh language ! It was the doctrine of the 
Abolitionists — the doctrine that slavery was a sin 
against God and an outrage upon humanity, and that 
immediate emancipation was therefore a duty — and 
not the language in which that doctrine was presented, 
that filled the South with madness. Dr. Channing 
and others thought they could express their hostility 
to slavery in terms so gentle and a spirit so calm, that 
the South would welcome their soft rebukes ; but they 
found their mistake, and that the slaveholders, in 
their wrath, made no discrimination in their favor. 
Dr. Channing, though he criticised the Abolitionists 
sharply, w^as just as intensely hated at the South as 
Garrison himself, and the recipient of the same odious 
epithets that w^ere hurled at him. 



220 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES, 



xni. 

Persecution of James G. Birnoy — Press Destroyed — The Martyr- 
dom of Lovejny — Meeting in Fanouil Hall — Dr. Chanuing — 
Wendell Phillips — Edmund Quincy. 

I HAVE already alluded to Mr. James G. Birney's 
conversion to the anti-slavery cause, to his emancipa- 
tion of his slaves, and to his consecration of himself to 
the work of freedom. The Abolitionists built large 
hopes upon the accession of such a man to their ranks. 
They argued therefrom the feasibility of their efforts to 
convince slaveholders of the sinfulness of slavery and 
persuade them to break the chains of their slaves ; and 
they felt sure that his example and eloquence would 
have great ^veight at the North. They soon discov- 
ered, however, the truth of the prophet's words: 
" Truth faileth, and he that depurteth from evil 
maketh himself a prey." The South broke out upon 
Mr. Birney in a storm of wrath. His gentleness, 
candor, and freedom from exaggeration counted for 
nothing. Allied by birth and marriage to a large 
circle of slaveholders, his name was at once cast out 
by them ns evil, and he could find no rest for the sole 
of his foot in the State where he was born. The 
Supreme Court of Alabama made haste to expunge 
his name from the roll of attorneys entitled to practice 
at the bar ; and in the University of the State, of 
which he had been a trustee, several literary societies, 
which had elected him an honorary member, passed 
resolutions of expulsion. In the face of all these 
angry ebullitions he was not dismayed. He resolved 
to establish a paper at Danville, Ky., and make open 



GARRISON AND HIS TBIES. 221 

war upon the slave system. On the 12th of July, 
1835, the slaveholders of that place and its neighbor- 
hood held a public meeting and openly declared that 
the establishment of the proposed paper should be 
prevented, by violence if necessary. i\Ir. Birney 
thereupon determined to go to Cincinnati ; but he soon 
found that he could not safely set up his press there. 
He went to New Richmond, twenty miles above Cin- 
cinnati, on the Ohio, where Quaker influences were 
dominant, and from that place appeared the first num- 
bers of " The Philanthropist." 

The new paper was well received, and Mr. Birncy 
ere long ventured to remove it to Cincinnati. It had 
been published there only about three months, when 
at midnight, on the 12th of July, 1836, the office was 
visited by a mob which did much damage to the press 
and types. Handbills appeared on the streets, offering 
rewards for the arrest of Mr. Birney and his delivery 
in Kentucky as a fugitive from justice. On the 21st 
of July a public meeting was held, to see if the people 
of Cincinnati "will permit the publication or distribu- 
tion of abolition papers in this city." The postmaster 
of the city, a clergyman, presided. A comriiittee of 
thirteen men of wealth and high social pusiUuu, eight 
of them communicants in Christian churches, was i;p- 
pointed to wait upon Mr. Birney and his associates and 
warn them that if the obnoxious paper were not dis- 
continued, the meeting would not be responsible for 
the consequences. At the head of this committee was 
Jacob Burnet, an ex-Senator of the United States, and 
ex-Judge of the Supreme Court of Ohio. The com- 
mittee met Mr. Birney and the Executive Committee 
of the Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, in a spirit of inso- 
lence worthy of the object it had in view. It would 
listen to no fair proposal on the part of the Abolition- 
ists. Judge Burnet declared that if the paper were 
not promptly suppressed, "a mob unusual in numbers, 



222 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

determined in purpose and desolating in its ravages," 
Avould be the consequence. Five thousand persons, 
he predicted, would engage in such a mob, and two- 
thirds of the property-holders of the city would join 
it. ]Mr. Birney and his friends felt that they could not 
yield to the demands of the committee without betray- 
ing a sacred trust and inflicting upon themselves an 
indelible disgrace. They must remain firm, at what- 
ever hazard to their persons or their property. The 
threatened mob followed promptly. On the evening 
of August 1st, the rioters assembled, organized, and 
resolved to destroy the press and types of "The Phil- 
anthropist," and to warn the editor to leave the city 
within twenty-four hours. Under cover of darkness 
the office was pillaged, the types were thrown into the 
street, and the press was broken in pieces and thrown 
into the river. Mr. Birney, not long after these 
events, was appointed Secretary of the American Anti- 
Slavery Society, and " The Philanthropist " passed 
under the control of Dr. Gamaliel Bailey. Twice 
after this, however, its types and press were demol- 
ished ; but ultimately the right of free speech was 
respected in Cincinnati. Mr. Birney served as Secre- 
tary of the National Society till the division of 1840, 
when he was nominated by the Liberty party as a can- 
didate for President of the United States. 

The tragic story of Elijah P. Lovejoy must next be 
told. He was a native of Maine and a gfraduate of 
Waterville College, in the class of 1826. He settled 
in St. Louis as a teacher, and for a time edited a polit- 
ical paper. In 1832 he resolved to enter the ministry, 
and after passing some time in the Theological Semi- 
nary at Princeton, was licensed to preach by the Pres- 
bytery of Philadelphia. Returning to St. Louis, he 
became the editor of a religious paper called "The 
Observer." He was not an Abolitionist in the full 
sense of the word, but was a friend of free discus- 



GAKRISON AND ITIS TIMES. 223 

sion, and some of his remarks on the subject of slavery 
gave great oli'eiice to the people of St. Louis. He was 
called to account for this exercise of his freedom in a 
slaveholding community, but did not prove tractable. 
In response to those who sought to curb him into 
silence he reminded them that the blood in his veins 
was kindred to that which flowed at Lexington and 
Bunker Hill, and declared that his own should flow 
like water before he would surrender the right of free 
discussion. In the spring of 1836, a negro who had 
killed an oflicer to avoid arrest, was taken out of jail 
by a mob, chained to a tree and burned to death. An 
attempt being made to punish the murderers, the judge 
(appropriately named Lawless), in his charge to the 
Grand Jury, laid down the doctrine that when a mob is 
hurried by some "mysterious, metaphysical and almost 
electric frenzy" to commit a deed of violence and 
blood, the participators therein are absolved from guilt 
and arc not proper subjects of punishment. If the 
jury should find that such was the iiict in that case, 
then, he said, "act not at all in the matter; the case 
transcends your jurisdiction ; it is beyond the reach of 
human law." Mr. Lovejoy commented upon this infa- 
mous charge, and upon the crime it was intended to 
screen from punishment, in the spirit of a freeman ; 
and for this his office was destroyed by a mob. He 
determined to remove his paper to Alton, but his 
press, on being landed there, was at once broken into 
fragments. The citizens reimbursed him for his loss. 
The pro-slavery party in Alton soon found occasion of 
oft'ence, and in the month of August, 1837, the office and 
press were destroyed by a mob. Another press was 
purchased, but before it could be set up it also was 
broken in pieces and the fragments thrown into the 
Mississippi. 

In the midst of these events a convention to form a 
State Anti-Slavery Society, which had been called to 



224 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

meet at Upper Alton, was broken up by a °]Dro-slavery 
assemblage. Two days later, however, the convention 
met in a private house and organized the contemphited 
society. Among the resolutions adopted was one 
declaring that "the cause of human rights, the liberty 
of si3eech and of the press, imperatively demand that 
the press of *The Alton Observer' be re-established at 
Alton with its present editor," and pledging the Soci- 
ety, with the aid of Alton friends and " by the help of 
Almighty God," to take measures for its re-establish- 
ment. Among those who took an active part in this 
convention, was the Kev. Dr. Edward Beecher, Presi- 
dent of Illinois College, w^ho drew up the preamble to 
the Constitution of the Society, and also a bold and 
comprehensive declaration of sentiments. The town 
was in a fearful state of excitement. A colonization 
meeting was held Oct. 31st, in which speeches, calcu- 
lated if not designed to inflame the mobocratic spirit, 
were made. Prominent among the speakers was the 
Rev. Dr. Joel Parker, who, having in 1833 declared 
himself in favor of immediate emancipation, afterwards 
went to New Orleans to adapt the Gospel to the tastes 
and desires of the traffickers in human flesh. A fit 
person was he to appear on the scene at Alton, in this 
fearful crisis, to lend a stimulus to the mob that was so 
soon to imbrue its hands in the blood of Lovejoy. 

At a public meeting, held Nov. 3d, to consider 
whether the publication of "The Observer" should be 
any longer permitted, Mr. Lovejoy made an eloquent 
and powerful speech. "I am impelled," he said, "to 
the course I have taken because I fear God. As I 
shall answer to my God in the great day, I dare not 
abandon my sentiments, or cease in all proper ways to 
propagate them. I am fully aware of all the sacrifice 
I make in here pledging myself to continue the con- 
test to the last. I am commanded to forsake father 
and mother, wife and children, for Jesus' sake; and 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 225 

as His professed disciple, I stand pledged to do it. 
The time for fulfilling this pledge in my case, it seems 
to me, has come. Sir, I dare not flee away from 
Alton. Should I attempt it, I should feel that the 
angel of the Lord, with drawn sword, Avas pursuing 
me wherever I went. It is because I fear God that I 
am not afraid of all those who oppose me in this city. 
No, sir, the contest has come here, and here it must bo 
finished. Before God and you all, 1 here pledge my- 
self to continue it, if need be, till death ; and if I fall, 
my grave shall be made in Alton." 

This speech made a powerful impression, and for a 
moment it seemed possible if not probable that the 
mob might be foiled. Dr. Edward Beecher says ho 
was never before so overcome with the powers of 
intellect and eloquence. "Many a bard face," he says, 
"did I see wet with tears as Mr. Lovejoy struck the 
chords of feeling to which God made the soul to re- 
spond. Even his bitter enemies wept. It reminded 
me of Paul before Festus, and of Luther at Worms." 
At the critical moment, when it was hoped that the 
liberty of speech would be vindicated, a Methodist 
preacher named John Hogan arose, and, in a violent, 
vindictive harangue, rekindled the mobocratic spirit and 
prepared the way for the tragedy that followed. 

Mr. Lovejoy 's new press arrived on the morning of 
Nov. 7th, and the news of its arrival was proclaimed to 
the mob by the blowing of horns. The mayor super- 
intended its transfer to the warehouse and aided in 
storing it away. Great excitement prevailed during 
the day, but at nine o'clock in the evening, there ])eing 
no sign of an assault, most of the defenders of the 
press retired, leaving a dozen persons or so, who w-ere 
willing, if necessary, to risk their lives in defending 
the freedom of speech. An hour or two later, the 
mob, thirty or forty in number, issued from the grog- 
shops, prepared to do the work to which they had been 

29 



22Q GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

incited by the speeches of the Rev. Dr. Joel Parker and 
the Kev. John Hogan. The defenders of the press were 
armed, and resolved to do what they thonght to be their 
duty. Mr. Lovejoy himself was among them. The mob 
threw stones at the building, broke windows and fired 
several shots. Then the cry went up, "Burn them 
out ! " Ladders were obtained and preparations made 
to set the building on tire. The mayor came, with a 
justice of the peace, and they were sent into the build- 
ing to propose the surrender of the press, on condi- 
tion that its defenders should not be injured. The 
mayor told the owner of the warehouse that it was 
not in his power to protect the building. He reported 
to the rioters that their terms were rejected, where- 
upon they set up the cry, "Fire the building, and 

shoot every d d Abolitionist as he leaves." The 

mob mounted the building and fired the roof. Five of 
the defenders rushed out of the warehouse, fired upon 
the mob and returned. Mr. Lovejoy and two others 
then stepped out, and were fired upon by rioters con- 
cealed behind a pile of lumber. Mr. Lovejoy received 
five balls, three of them in his breast. He lived long 
enough to return to the counting-room, where, after 
exclaiming, "I am shot! I am shot!" he almost 
instantly expired. After his death his friends olFered 
to surrender, but the ofier was refused. As they left 
the burning building they were fired upon, but no one 
was killed. The mob then rushed in, broke the press 
in pieces and threw them into the river. The next 
day the body of the martyr was buried by his friends, 
the infuriated mobocrats re«:ardin2: the scene with 
manifest exultation. Alton, from that very day, went 
under a cloud, from which she did not emer2:e for 
years. Her prosperity was smitten with a moral 
blight. Her very name became repulsive. Emigrants 
of intelligence and character could not be attracted to 
a place whose citizens allowed a man to be ruthlessly 



aARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 227 

murdered for daring to speak against slavery. The 
grave of the martyr, which was made upon a bluff 
overlooking the Mississippi, was unmarked for many 
years, but an appropriate monument now indicates the 
spot. For centuries to come, that monument, I ven- 
ture to say, will attract more visitors than any other 
object that Alton will have to show. To the friends 
of liberty it will be a shrine, reminding them how 
much they owe to one noble man, who preferred to 
die rather than surrender the dearest right of an 
American citizen. 

The Alton tragedy set everybody to discussing the 
slavery question. As a general rule, the newspapers 
condemned the mob, and criticised Mr. Lovejoy at the 
same time for his alleged imprudence. Here and 
there a pulpit spoke out bravely in condemnation of 
the outrage ; but a larger number offered apologies for 
it, and made it an occasion for denouncing the Abo- 
litionists. Dr. Channing was deeply moved, and at 
once proposed to hold a public meeting in Faneuil 
Hall of those Avho wished to condemn the outrage as 
it deserved. The first application for the hall was 
denied, on the ground that the resolutions and votes 
of the proposed meeting might be considered in other 
places " as the public voice of the city." This decis- 
ion was certainly significant as to what was understood 
to be the real public sentiment of Boston in respect to 
the tragedy. Dr. Channing appealed from the decis- 
ion of the Board of Aldermen to the people them- 
selves, in a letter of such power that it admitted of 
no reasonable answer from the other side. A second 
application for the hall proved successful ; and the 
proposed meeting was held on the 8th of December, 
1837, — in the daytime, lest, if it should be held in 
the evening, Boston might once more try her hand at 
a mob. A larjre audience assembled. Hon. Jonathan 
Phillips, an eminent citizen, and a particular friend of 



228 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

Dr. Channing, presided. Dr. Channing made a calm 
but most impressive address ; after which, a series 
of resolutions — written by him — temperately yet 
strongly condemning the Alton outrage, and express- 
ing a deep sense of the value and importance of the 
unrestricted freedom of the press, was read by B. F. 
Hallett. George S. Hillard followed in an earnest 
and able speech in support of the resolutions. When 
he had concluded, uprose (in the gallery) James T. 
Austin, Attorney-General of the State and a member 
of Dr. Channing's congregation, who, in a brazen 
way, imposed himself upon the meeting to deliver a 
most abusive and insulting speech. He compared the 
emancipation of slaves to turning loose the wild beasts 
of a menagerie, and declared that Lovejoy had " died 
as the fool dieth." The Alton mob asrainst the freedom 
of the press was justified by a comparison therewith 
of the destruction of the tea in Boston Harbor in 
Revolutionary days. The speech was as ofiensive in 
manner as in matter. The speaker probably hoped 
that his utterances would create confusion and defeat 
the object of the meeting. If such was his expecta- 
tion, he was doomed to a bitter disappointment. 
When he took his seat, a young man — then unknown 
to fame, but destined soon to achieve a reputation as 
a public speaker second to that of no other in the land 
or in the civilized world — stepped upon the rostrum. 
It was Wendell Phillips, his brow still wet with the 
dews of youth, the best blood of Boston in his veins, 
the best culture of Harvard in his head, and his 
tongue set aflame by the righteous indignation that 
filled his breast. Mr. Phillips, a few months before 
this, had openly identified himself with the Abolition- 
ists. The trumpet-tones of Garrison had fallen upon 
his ear and touched his insfenuous heart. He had 
spoken several times in small anti-slavery meetings, 
charming all who heard him by his eloquence, grace, 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 229 

and devotion ; but this was bis first appearance before 
a large assembly. I had heard him once before 
myself, as a few others in that great meeting probably 
had, and my expectations were high ; but he tran- 
scended them all, and took the audience by stoym. 
Never before, I venture to say, did the walls of the 
" Old Cradle of Liberty " echo to a finer strain of 
eloquence, or to more exalted and ennobling sentiments 
than those which then fell from the lips of the young 
orator of freedom. It was a speech to Avhich not 
even the completest literal report could do justice ; for 
such a report could not bring the scene — the occasion 
and the manner of the speaker — vividly before the 
reader. It was before the days of phonography, and 
the reporter seems to me to have caught only a pale 
reflection of what fell from the speaker's lips ; but 
here is a portion of the exordium, as reported by B. 
F. Hallett, one of the best of the profession at that 
day : — 

''Mr. Chairman, when I heard the gentleman (Mr. 
Austin) lay down principles which placed the rioters, 
incendiaries, and murderers of Alton, side by side wiih 
Otis and Hancock, with Quincy and Adams, I thought 
those pictured lips [pointing to the portraits in the hall] 
would have broken into voice to rebuke the recreant Ameri- 
can, the slanderer of the dead. Sir, the gentleman said 
that he should sink into insigniticance if he dared not gain- 
say the principles of the resolutions before this meeting. 
Sir, for the sentiments he has uttered on soil consecrated 
by the prayers of Puritans and the blood of patriots, the 
earth should have yawned and swallowed him up." 

From this time till the close of the conflict Mr. 
Phillips, above all other men, was the orator of the 
anti-slavery cause. The announcement that he would 
speak, whether in city or country, was sure to attract 
a crowd ; and this not once or twice merely, but con- 
stantly, year after year. As a young member of the 



230 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

bar, a brilliant career was open before him. He had 
but to keep steadily on in the traditional path, and he 
might hope to win any honors that the old Common- 
wealth had to bestow. But when he heard the cry of 
snflering humanity, the voice of worldly ambition was 
hushed ; and he gave all his great powers to the work 
of "delivering the needy, the poor also, and him that 
had no helper." Exalted natural endowments, the 
ripest culture America could give, and social advan- 
tages of the highest order, all were made tributary to 
an unpopular but righteous cause. His example, in 
this act of early self-consecration, and in the firmness 
of his adherence to the principles embraced in his 
early manhood, may be safely commended to the 
young men of coming generations. Perhaps no man, 
save Mr. Garrison himself, did more than he to create 
the public sentiment which opened the way to the 
emancipation of the slaves ; and never, surely, was 
eloquence of the highest order consecrated to a nobler 
cause. Many of his friends will recall with pleasure 
these humorously descriptive lines of James Russell 
Lowell, written many years ago : — 

" There, with one band behind bis back, 
Stands Phillips, buttoned in a sack, — 
Our Attic orator, our Chatham ; 
Old fogies, when he lightens at 'em, 
Shrivel like leaves ; to him 'tis granted 
Always to say the word that's wanted, 
So that he seems but speaking clearer 
The tip-top thought of every hearer ; 
Each Hash his brooding h,eart lets fall 
Fires what's combustible in all, 
And sends the applauses bursting in 
Like an exploded magazine. 
His eloquence no frothy show, 
The gutter's street-polluted flow ; 
No Mississij)pi's yellow flood, 
Whose shoalness can't be seen for mud; 
So sini})ly clear, serenity deep, 
So silent, strong, its graceful sweep, 
None measures its unrippling force, 
"Who has not striven to stem its course." 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 231 

Another young man of Boston, and one bearing a 
name most honorably associated with American history 
from the earliest period, was led by the Alton tragedy 
to identify himself with the despised cause of aboli- 
tion. I allude to Edmund Quincy, youngest son of 
Josiah Quincy, Sr., formerly a member of Congress 
from Boston, afterwards for several years mayor of 
the city, and later still president of Harvard Univer- 
sity. Mr. Quincy was a graduate of Harvard, a young 
man of great intellectual ability, ripe culture, fine lit- 
erary tastes, and unswerving rectitude of character. 
In a letter asking that his name might be enrolled as a 
member of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, 
he said : "I have deferred too long enrolling my name 
on the list of that noble army, which for seven years 
past has maintained the right, and gallantly defended 
the cause of our common humanity, undismayed by 
danger and undeterred by obloquy ; but I hope that in 
whatever fields yet remain to be fought you will find 
me in the thickest of the fray, at the side of our vet- 
eran chiefs, whether the warfare be directed against 
the open hostility of professed foes, or the more dan- 
gerous attacks of hollow friends." And well did he 
fulfil the promise conveyed in these words, though in 
doing so he incurred a measure of social obloquy which 
few others in our ranks were called to endure. Not 
once did he shirk any service for the cause which it 
was in his power to render. At the meeting called by 
the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society to commemo- 
rate the death of Lovejoy, he made his first anti-slavery 
speech, and a noble one it was, revealing a firm grasp 
of principles and a moral insight clear as the noonday 
sun. As a speaker, though impressive and forcible, 
he was not the equal of Phillips ; but as a writer upon 
the questions of the day, he was highly gifted. His 
name and presence as a presiding officer lent dignity 
to many of our meetings, and his contributions to 



232 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

" The Liberator " and "National Anti-Slavery Stand- 
ard," from the time that he entered our ranks to the 
end of the conflict, were as important and vahiable as 
they were numerous. It often fell to his lot to contri- 
bute editorial articles to " The Liberator," in the ab- 
sence of the editor, and he was for twenty years or 
more an editorial writer and correspondent of " The 
Standard," which was established by the American 
Anti-Slavery Society in New York in 1840, to replace 
the "conveyed" "Emancipator," and which was con- 
tinued, like "The Liberator," to the end of the con- 
flict. During a considerable part of this time he was 
associated with James Eussell Lowell, another man 
who deserves honorable mention for consecrating his 
fresh young manhood and his fine literary abilities to 
the cause of the slave. Some of his noblest poems 
made their first appearance in "The Standard." Mr. 
Quincy's leaders, in their adaptation to the needs of 
the hour, and in respect of their literary quality, were 
equal to the very best to be found in any other jour- 
nal ; while his letters from Boston — in "The Stand- 
ard," under the si2:nature of "D. Y.," and in "The 
New York Tribune" under that of "Byles,"— for their 
felicitous treatment of passing events as connected 
with the anti-slavery cause, and for both playful and 
caustic wit, were of the highest interest. In the days 
of Webster's apostacy and Boston's degradation as a 
hunting-ground for fugitive slaves, Mr. Quincy was 
our "Junius," and a great deal besides. It would be 
impossible to exaggerate the value to our cause of a 
writer of such varied cfifts. I am certain that no 
series of editorial essays, written lor any other jour- 
nal during the Ilebellion, and dealing with its ever- 
changing phases, Avould so well bear examination now 
as those written by Mr. Quincy for "The Standard." 
They were remarkable for soundness of judgment in 
regard fo past events, and equally so for that pre- 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 233 

science which is a characteristic of the highest Avis- 
dom. Mr. Quincy lived to see the fruits of his 
self-sacrificing labors in the broken chains of the 
slaves, and in their transformation from chattels to 
citizens. It was my privilege to be intimately asso- 
ciated with him in the conduct of " The Standard " for 
many years, and were it needful, I could recall many 
illustrations of the nobility of his character and of his 
unreserved devotion to the cause. He was exceedingly 
modest, sometimes even shy, never seeking conspicuit}^ 
or courting applause ; but Avhen the camp was be- 
leaguered by foes, or in danger of betrayal by traitors 
within, his sagacity and courage were equal to the oc- 
casion. He hated meanness and treachery, whatever 
guise they assumed, and could set a hypocrite in tho 
pillory with a skill that left him no chance of escape. 

30 



234 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 



xrv. 

Attitude of the Churclies — Anti-Slavery Agitation among the 
Methodists — Persecution of Abolitionists — The Wesleyan Seces- 
sion — The Division of 1844 — The Methodist Church a Type 
of Others — The Baptists — Orthodox Authorities — Old School 
Covenanters — The Free Presbyterians — The Quakers. 

In not a few instances, in the preceding pages, I 
have spoken of the hostility of the great religious de- 
nominations of the country to the anti-slavery move- 
ment, but there is need of a more distinct presentation 
of this branch of my subject. I am the more con- 
vinced of this because, while some of my sketches 
were passing through "The Tribune," complaints were 
made in some quarters that my statements respecting 
ministers and churches were unhistorical and false. I 
shall, therefore, devote this chapter to the subject. 
And I begin with the Methodist church, not only be- 
cause it is one of the largest and most influential of 
American sects, but because I have been charged by a 
distinguished minister of that church with misrepre- 
sentini^ it. 

The Methodist Episcopal church, in its earlier years, 
set itself strongly against slavery, apparently with a 
fixed determination not to be defiled by it ; but long 
before the anti-slavery movement began, its good reso- 
lutions had been forgotten, and it had surrendered 
to the enemy. Its degeneracy began early. During 
the Revolutionary period, the influence of Wesley on 
the rising church was withdrawn, and "the infernal 
spirit of slavery," as Bishop Asbury called it, gained 
ascendancy over the " dear Zion ; " the rules against 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 235 

slavery were relaxed; the foul flood began to per- 
colate' the dikes erected by Wesley, and they were 
at length practically swept away by its force. The 
church, so far as respects its laity, became a slave- 
holding church, nursing at its bosom a system of op- 
pression which Wesley truly stigmatized as " the vilest 
that ever saw the sun." AVhatever rules of discipline 
unfavorable to the system still remained upon its 
records, in the presence of this damning fact were as 
worthless as the Ten Commandments would be if in- 
scribed on the walls of a gambling den. They could 
only serve to make the guilt of the church the more 
conspicuous. And yet there are those at the present 
day who point to these tattered remnants of laws con- 
temned and viohited, as proofs that the church, with 
thousands of slaveholders in her bosom, holding scores 
of thousands of slaves, buying and selling them at 
pleasure, keeping them in ignorance and degradation, 
and working them without wages under the lash, was 
yet an anti-slavery church, Avith, in the language of 
the Rev. Dr. Whedon, " a historic anti-slaveryism of 
her own, of which she is not a little proud." It seems 
to me that the pride which is built upon such a founda- 
tion must be of the sort that " goeth before destruction," 
indicating a " haughty spirit" that betokens "a fall." 
Shame and confusion of face, and tears of contrition 
would better befit a church in such circumstances. 
The prodigal son did not seek to make his early but 
broken resolutions of virtue a cover and excuse for 
" wasting his substance in riotous living," nor talk with 
"pride" of his "historic" merit. God's moral law, 
let it be remembered, is the same for churches as for 
individuals. 

Slavery having once gained a foothold in the church, 
its power was augmented with every passing year. 
The period following the war of the Revolution was 
marked by a laxity of morals on every hand, which 



236 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

affected the Methodist church in common with others. 
The country, weary with excitement, longed for re- 
pose, and was little inclined to enter into any moral 
striiirsflc. There was, moreover, a common fcelina', 
that the spirit of liberty, which had triumphed over 
the tyranny of England and made the nation an inde- ^ 
pendent republic, had gained such momentum, that, 
without any special efforts on the part of the people, 
it would of itself sweep slavery and other forms of 
oppression entirely away. Then came the era of the 
Constitution, with its sinful compromises, to work a 
still further demoralization. The invention of the 
cotton-gin, by augmenting the profits of slave labor, 
deadened the conscience of the whole country to the 
iniquity of slavery, and the testimonies against it at the 
North grew feebler and feebler until they dwindled at 
length, after the Missouri spasm in 1820, into ahiiost 
utter silence. The voice of Lundy was indeed heard 
" crying in the wilderness," but heard by few outside of 
the Quaker sect. But Garrison's trumpet-call, in- 
stinct with a living principle and an indomitable pur- 
pose, awoke the sleeping land. The Methodists in 
New Ensrland were amous: the first to show sii^ns of 
sensibility and interest. They were but slightly af- 
fected by the conservatism that pervaded other sects in 
that part of the country. They were a simple-minded 
people, with deep religious convictions, and therefore 
peculiarly susceptible to moral truths. Methodist 
preachers began early to read " The Liberator," which 
set them thinking not only about slavery, but about 
the guilty connection of their own church therewith. 
Wesley's denunciations of slavery were brought freshly 
to mind, and a desire to do something for the purifica- 
tion of the church that he had founded sprang up among 
both ministers and laymen. Methodist preachers here 
and there sought Mr. Garrison's acquaintance, and be- 
gan to testify against slavery in their own pulpits, and 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 237 

to open them to the agents of the anti-slavery socie- 
ties. 

At the beginning of 1835, the columns of " Zion's 
Ilcralcl " were opened to the discussion of the subject, 
p?'0 and con. The Rev. Orange Scott led off on the 
anti-slavery side in a series of able articles, which 
made a very powerful impression within and even be- 
yond New England. He opposed the Colonization 
scheme, denounced slavery as a sin, and vindicated the 
doctrine and the duty of immediate emancipation. His 
abolitionism, in short, was avowedly Garrisonian. 
There was no disingenuous effort then to make it ap- 
pear that the impulse to the discussion had been de- 
rived from Methodist traditions alone, and that nothinsf 
was due to Mr. Garrison on that score. That folly 
was reserved to be put forth by a Methodist divine in 
1879, fourteen years after emancipation! He pre- 
sumes too far upon human forgetfulness and the uncer- 
tainties of history in making such a claim. So far as 
human foresight can discover, if Garrison had not 
spoken, the Methodist church might have slept to this 
day, as it had been sleeping for years, over the sin and 
crime of slavery, sinking deeper and deeper into the 
slough from which she was tinally delivered, not by 
her own inherent virtue or by the operation of her 
discipline, but by the bloody desolations of a retribu- 
tive war. 

From this point the agitation of the slavery question 
in the Methodist church went on, with various alterna- 
tions, until the day of emancipation. It spread from 
New En2:land to the Middle States and to the West, 
and stirred the South to impotent madness. 

It does not lie within the scope of my work to trace 
the history at length. Any one who wishes to do so 
wili Und it set forth in ''The History of American 
Slavery and Methodism," by the Rev. Lucius C Mat- 
lack, a new edition of which, I understand, will 



238 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

shorlly appear. The agitation was marked on the one 
side by a brave and earnest advocacy of anti-slavery 
principles, and on the other by a spirit of proscription 
"which has few parallels in modern ecclesiastical his- 
tory. The central authority of the church was domi- 
nated by the Slave Power, and though it piled no 
fiiirsrots and kindled no literal tires for its victims, it 
was yet able to make the air around them hot with the 
flames of persecution. Ecclesiastical chains and 
thumbscrews were in requisition on every hand. Anti- 
slavery ministers, who dared to preach or write against 
slavery and in favor of immediate emancipation, were 
marked for such forms of proscription as are still pos- 
sible in the light of the nineteenth century. The 
power which the Methodist discipline confers upon 
bishops, and upon the presiding elders appointed by 
them, and the moral and ecclesiastical weii^ht of the 
great General Conference, were employed to crush the 
leaders of the anti-slavery agitation. Specious and 
professedly affectionate appeals were first tried, and 
when these failed, ecclesiastical stones hurtled in the 
air. The Bible was appealed to for proof that slave- 
holding was an innocent practice, and the friends of 
immediate emancipation were pelted with opprobrious 
epithets. A New England bishop declared that "the 
right to hold a slave is founded on this rule : ' There- 
fore, all things whatsoever ye would that men should 
do unto you, do ye even so unto them.'" Dr. Wilbur 
risk, the great leader of New England Methodism, 
declared that " the general rule of Christianity not only 
permits, but in supposable circumstances enjoins, a 
continuance of the master's authority." " I have never 
yet," said Bishop Soulc, "advised the liberation of a 
slave, and X think I never shall." "There is," said 
tho editor of "The Christian Advocate and Journal," 
" no express prohibition to Christians to hold slaves." 
The Southern Conferences were allowed to pronounce 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 239 

opinions favorable to slavery, and to fulminate their 
hostility to the Abolitionists, in such language as their 
vindictive temper might suggest ; but when Northern 
Conferences essayed to utter a testimony against 
slavery and in favor of emancipation, the presiding 
bishops refused to put the question to vote, claiming 
it as their prerogative to decide what subjects, outside 
of the prescribed disciplinary routine, should be acted 
upon. The minions of the Slave Power on the floor of 
Congress were no more arbitrary or insolent than these 
bishops and their tools. 

But it was all in vain. The agitation went on in 
spite of the most desperate efforts to extinguish it ; 
indeed, as might have been expected, these efibrts only 
added to its intensity. The great body of the preach- 
ers in New England soon became Abolitionists, as did 
those, if I mistake not, of some other Conferences. 
Their leaders, Sunderland, Scott, Horton, Storrs, Lee, 
Matlack and others, were powerful men, and they 
fought a brave battle ; but they could never carry the 
main fortress of the enemy, commanded as it was by 
the central powers of the church. Mr. Sunderland 
established an anti-slavery paper, " Zion's Watchman," 
in New York, and conducted it for years, with great 
ability, bringing upon himself a load of persecution, 
social and ecclesiastical, that he found hard to bear. 
" The result of this extensive series of proscriptions," 
says Mr. Matlack in his History, p. 296, "was soon 
felt and manifested. It generated a loss of confidence 
in the integrity of the prime ministers, who, in many 
cases, were the prime movers of these measures. This 
was associated with a decrease of attachment to the 
church itself, while many desired to give a powerful 
testimony against slavery that should be felt through- 
out the land. These things combined prepared the 
way for the withdrawal from the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, on the alleged ground that it was hopelessly 



240 GARRISON AVD HIS TIMES. 

wedded to slavery, and could only be waked up to see 
its true position by such decided action." 

The Wcsleyan Methodist Church, composed of six 
thousand members, most of them seceders from the M. 
E. Church, and seventy-five or eighty pastors, was 
organized at Utica, N. Y., May 31, 1843. Its disci- 
pline condemned slavery as a sin. This movement 
ahirmed the old church. The new organization was 
gaining rapidly in numbers, when the General Confer- 
ence of the old church assembled in New York in May, 
1844. The pro-slavery party, sobered by the secession 
of so large a body of members, and apprehensive of 
still further losses, began to think that discretion was 
the better part of valor, and that it was best for 
the old church to take some sort of action that would 
have a tendency to stem the tide of anti-slavery seces- 
sion. An occasion was furnished in the circumstance 
that J. O. Andrew, one of the Southern Bishops, had 
become a slaveholder by marriage. No instance of 
this sort having occurred before, it was resolved by 
the members to make a virtue of passing some form of 
censure upon the bishop. It was hoped at first that 
the Southern members, after all that their Northern 
brethren had done to protect the system of slavery 
from the assaults of the Abolitionists, would themselves 
quietly consent to this action, Avhich was necessary 
to save the Northern wing of the church from further 
disintegration. 

But Southern Methodists were in no mood to submit 
to this arrangement, merely for the purpose of enabling 
their Northern brethren to say, " See ! we are opposed to 
slavery ; have we not unfrocked a slaveholding bishop ?" 
The Southern brethren, having for years received from 
their Northern associates the comforting assurance that 
shiveholding was no sin, but a practice sanctioned by 
the Bible and not forbidden by the discipline, could 
not understand why a censure should be passed upon 



GARRISON AND PIIS TIMES. 241 

Bishop Andrew for doing only what the whole body of 
the Southern laity and many of the preachers had been 
permitted to do without objection for half a century. 
If "the right to hold a slave" was "founded upon the 
Golden Rule," as Bishop Hedding said it was, why 
should a bishop of the church be denounced for exer- 
cising that right? Had the lay members and preach- 
ers a monopoly of the rights conferred by the Golden 
Eule ? If Bishop Andrew were pronounced a sinner 
for being a slaveholder, would not a stigma be fastened 
by implication upon every other slaveholder at the 
South? This was the logic of the case to the Southern 
members, and they felt that to yield what the Northern 
brethren demanded, on grounds of expediency, merely 
to help them out of a difficulty, would be nothing less 
than a surrender of the very citadel of slavery. They 
iirmly refused to do as they were requested, and 
threatened to secede if their favorite bishop were cen- 
sured. Having ruled the church so long, they were 
not inclined to give up the reins of authority now. 

Here was a dread alternative for the Northern breth- 
ren. If they should let the slaveholding bishop pass 
without censure, the AYesleyans would devour their 
heritage ; if they dared to censure him, they would 
drive out almost the whole body of Southern Method- 
ists, to retain whom they had stooped in the past to 
every form of self-stultifying humiliation. In view of 
what they had said of slavery in previous years, they 
could not pretend to act upon any ground of principle, 
but only upon one of expediency, in censuring the 
bishop. The Baltimore Conference, either hoping that 
the more Southern conferences would not carrv out 
their threats, or holding that a secession on that side 
would be the least of two evils, concluded to join the 
North in censuring the bishop, and so the measure 
Avas carried. The Southern conferences thereupon 
seceded. And now the church North proceeded to 

31 



242 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

exalt itself as an anti-slavery body, thoiiirh slavery 
still existed, exactly as before, in no less than eight of 
its conferences, and thongh she had exerted all her 
powers of persuasion to induce the whole church 
South, with her thousands of lay slaveholders and her 
hundreds of slavehoiding preachers, to remain in full 
fellowship with her. It strikes me that the refusal to 
sanction in a single bishop what had for half a century 
been freely allowed to tens of thousands of la3'men 
and multitudes of preachers, was a very narrow foun- 
dation on which to set up a claim for an anti-slavery 
reputation ; but that was what the Methodist Episcopal 
Church did after the Southerners withdrew. She did 
not even trouble herself to make a single effort to free 
the twenty thousand or more slaves still held within 
her pale, nor call to account the slavehoiding preachers 
whose names still remained upon her rolls. And 
to-day there are Methodists blind enough to claim that 
the refusal to endorse a slavehoiding bishop was an 
adequate atonement for conniving with slavery for 
scores of years, for all the apologies and defences 
of the system woven from Scripture texts by bishops 
and theological professors, for the desperate attempt 
pursued for years to put down the anti-slavery agita- 
tion, and for the dreadful persecutions visited upon 
Sunderland, Scott, and other faithful friends of the 
slave ! 

Does any one ask why I have told this story of the. 
complicity of a great church with slavery? I answer : 
Because I would pay a tribute of respect and admira- 
tion to the brave champions who fought the battles of 
the slave aijainst such tremendous odds, bearinsf re- 
proach with meekness and patience ; because the anti- 
slavery agitation in the Methodist Church was part of 
the great movement that originated with Garrison ; 
and finally, because the interests of truth require the 
exposure, for the warning of men in aM time to come, 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 243 

of every such betrayal of the interests of humanity 
and of the cause of Christ. I do not for a moment 
imagine that Iledding and Fisk, and Olin and Bangs, 
and their associates, had any love for slavery in itself 
considered. What they desired was to build up a 
great and united church. For this they were willing 
to close their ears and steel their hearts to the cry of 
sufTerino: humanitv, and to torture the Bible in the 
interest of the slave-masters. Grant even that they 
were pro-church rather than pro-slavery in their 
hearts ; this does not in the least diminish the heinous- 
ness of their sin. For that sin the present generation 
of Methodists is no otherwise responsible than as it 
apologizes therefor and seeks to cover it up. The 
only honorable course involves a frank acknowledsf- 
ment of the sin of the fathers. The Divine declara- 
tion, "He that covereth his sins shall not prosper; but 
whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy," 
is as true of churches as it is of individuals. An apol- 
ogy might be framed for the politicians and parties 
that "bent the knee to the dark spirit of slavery," on 
the same ground upon which it is sought to excuse the 
clergy and the churches for the same oflence. North- 
ern Whigs and Democrats did not love slavery for its 
own sake ; they only wished to preserve and augment 
the strength of their parties. If they had seen a way 
of doing this while lighting slavery, they might have 
adopted it eagerly. But this view of the matter aggra- 
vates rather than diminishes their inhumanity and 
guilt. W^hat worse indeed could we say of any man, 
than that his love for his party overmasters his love 
for humanity, and that his desire for the external pros- 
perity of his church exceeds his solicitude for its 
purity and his regard for the law- of God? 

I have said nothing specifically thus for of the Bap- 
tist denomination. If space permitted, however, I 
could "a tale unfold" of the complicity of that branch 



244 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

of the church with slavery, of heroic but unsuccessful 
struggles to redeem it from bloocl-guihiness, and of 
opprobrium and persecution endured by noble n:ien in 
the prosecution of that work, in most respects parallel 
with that which I have told concerning the Methodists. 
Northern and Southern Baptist churches were in close 
affiliation with each other ; in the latter, slavery ex- 
isted in its most odious form, and the whole power of 
the denomination, from first to last, was exerted to 
screen slaveholders and slaveholding churches from 
censure. Some of the men who fought for freedom 
and purity in this denomination with little success, 
were Ilev. Cyrus P. Grosvenor, Rev. Duncan Dunbar 
and Kev. Elon Galusha. The Rev. Richard Furman, 
of South Carolina, was the first president of the Tri- 
ennial Convention in which Northern and Southern 
Baptists met in fraternal union. After Mr. Furman's 
death his estate was sold at auction, and was adver- 
tised in these terms ; " A plantation or tract of land 
on and in Wateree Swamp ; .... a library of a 
miscellaneous character, chiefly theological ; 27 ne- 
groes, some of them very prime ; 2 mules, 1 horse, 
and an old wagon." Dr. Wayland, President of 
Brown University, was the Coryi)ha3Us of the Baptist 
denomination, and while, in his "Moral Philosophy," 
he pronounced slavery wrong, he could never be per- 
suaded that the Baptist churches at the North ought to 
do anything to abolish it, or that it was wrong for 
them to be in religious fellowship with those who sold 
human beings (perhaps Baptist Christians) at auction, 
along with mules, horses and old wagons. In 1838, 
when the consciences of Northern Christians were 
beginning to be tender on this subject, he published a 
book, "'Jlie Limitations of Human Responsibility," in 
which, after wading through a great array of prelimi- 
naries and drawing a great many line distinctions on a 
variety of subjects, he came to the one point which he 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 245 

seems to have had in view at the start; viz., that the 
people of the North were in such rekitions with the 
South, constitutionally and otherwise, that they ought 
not to agitate the subject of slavery, and that it would 
be an act of bad faith for Congress to abolish slavery 
in the District of Columbia ! 

Making due allowance for differences of ecclesias- 
tical organization, the Methodist and Baptist churches, 
in their relations to slavery, may be taken as types of 
all the other great denominations of the country. The 
Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Congregational, Unitarian 
and Universalist churches, with some diflerences as to 
method, location, etc., were essentially alike in spirit, 
in their firm resistance to the anti-slavery movement, 
and in their refusal or neglect to adopt any efiicient 
measures for the overthrow of slavery. They were 
alike in exerting their ingenuity to evade the subject 
entirely; and when this was found to be impossible, 
they all alike made their action as feeble and meaning- 
less as lay in their power. When public opinion com- 
pelled them, as it sometimes did, to take some sort of 
action that would seem to be anti-slavery, it was usu- 
ally put in such a shape as to amount to little or nothing 
— in short, mere buncombe. Denunciations of the 
S7/stem of slavery, with mental reservations for individ- 
ual slaveholding, were often put forth to deceive the 
unwary and as a sop for uneasy consciences. And 
when passably satisfactory resolutions were adopted, 
as they sometimes were, by local ecclesiastical bodies, 
the}' became worthless for lack of corresponding action. 
What would be thou<2:ht of a e^reat church that con- 
tented itself with adopting an occasional resolution of 
sympathy for the heathen, recognizing their need 
of the gospel, but which established no missions, sent 
forth no missionaries, and never took up a contribu- 
tion for any missionary treasury? Would such a 
church have credit for sincerity? I trow not. And 



246 GAPwRISOX AND HIS TIMES. 

now I ask what one of all the great churches in this 
Christian country ever formed a purpose to overthrow 
or assist in overthrowing shivery, and then proceeded 
either to adopt measures of its own for that purpose, 
or to assist in carrying out measures proposed by 
others to that end ? In tlie days when African colon- 
ization was accepted at the North as a remedy for shiv- 
ery, the churches (or many of them) used to take up 
contributions in aid of the scheme ; but how often did 
the anti-slavery movement, in any of its forms, have 
the benefit of such aid? Admit, for the sake of the 
argument, that the churches had good reason for stand- 
ing aloof from Garrison, was that a justifiable excuse 
for doin2f nothin«:? If others were seekinsf the aboli- 
\ tiou of slavery by unwise methods, or even making 
\ their opposition to the system a cover for their hostility 
to the churches, Avas it not all the more the duty of 
the churches to array their whole moral power in sup- 
port of some wise movement against that gigantic 
national crime? If the churches had any plan of their 
f own for the abolition of slavery, what was it? If they 
I ever struck hands with each other to break the shackles 
of the slaves, when was it? That with one consent 
they received slaveholders to their communion and 
admitted them to their pulpits, contending the while 
that holding slaves was perfectly compatible with Chris- 
^ tianity, I know full well. But in what way did they, 
as organized bodies, bring the power of Christianity 
to bear against slavery and its supporters ? Brave men 
there were in all these folds, who straggled to bring 
their several denominations to a sense of their respon- 
sibility, and lead them to take earnest anti-slavery 
action. These men were maligned and persecuted, 
wdiilc the churches closed their ears to such entreaties, 
and rushed on in their pro-slavery course. And now 
behold ! an effort is made, with some professedly anti- 
slavery men assenting, to shield the churches behind 



GARRISON AXD HIS TIMES. 247 

these very men, and to blot ont a chapter of history 
as disgraceful as any that can be found in ecclesiastical 
annals. The effort will be abortive — the uijly facts 
will be proclaimed, for the instruction and warning of 
men in all coming time. 

There are men, who, when the truth on this sub- 
ject is spoken, stand ready to say it is all a slander of 
those w4io hate Christianity, at least in the " evangeli- 
cal" meaning of the term. It is important to unmask 
these men, and show that not Garrisonian Abolitionists 
alone, but men of the strictest orthodoxy have made 
precisely the same allegations against the churches, on 
account of their pro-slavery attitude and course, as 
were made by Mr. Garrison. For this purpose I cite 
the folloAving testimony : — 

James G. Birney, Presbyterian. 

The American churches are the bulwarks of American 
slaveiy. 

Eev. Mr. McLane, Mississijjpi. 
[Id Presbyterian General Assembly at Buffalo.! 

We have men in our churches who buy slaves, and work 
them, because they can make more money by it than any 
other way. And the more of such men we have the better. 
All who can, own slaves ; and those who cannot want to. 

Mr. Stewart, Euling Elder, of Illinois. 
[In General Assembly of 1835.] 

Ministers of the gospel and doctors of divinit}' may en- 
gage in this unhol}' traffic [separatiug brothers and sisters, 
husbands and wives, parents and children], and 3'et sustain 
their high and hoty calling. Elders, ministers, and doctors 
of divinity are with both hands engaged in the practice. 

Albert Barnes, Presbyterian. 

Let the time come when, in all the mighty' denominations 
of Christians, it can be announced that slavery has ceased 
with them forever ; and let the voice from each denomination 
be hfted up in kind, but firm and solemn testimony against 



248 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

the sj'stem — with no "mealy" words; with no attempt at 
apology ; with no wish to blink it ; with no effort to throw 
the sacred shield of religion over so great an evil — and the 
work is done. There is no public sentiment in this land — 
there could be none created, that would reeist the power of 
such testimon}'. There is no power out of the church that \ 
could sustain slaver}' an hoi;r if it were not sustained in it. J 

These words of Mr. Barnes, mild as they are, justi- 
fy, and more than justif}^ every accusation brought 
against the American churches by Mr. Garrison, or 
any one else in the anti-slavery ranks. Having the 
power to strike the chains from the slaves at any time, 
they not only refused to exercise that pow-er, but did 
what they could to hinder those who were working 
with that end in view. They did not even emancipate 
the slaves within their own pale, but continued to hold 
them as long as they could, and until their shackles 
were broken by war. 

Ealph Wardlaw, Scotland. 

So long as a church holds that slavei-y is authorized by 
the scriptures, it is an anti-Christian church, and not a church 
of Christ. 

Hon. William Jay, Episcopalian. 

The shocking insensibility of our churches, religious soci- 
eties, and religious men to the iniquities of slavery, of course 
involves them in gross inconsistencies, degrades the charac- 
ter of the gospel of Christ, and gives a mighty impulse to in- 
fidelity. . . From men like Paine and most of his follow- 
ers the church has little to fear. But a new class of converts 
to infidelity is springing up, men whose fearless and disinter- 
ested fidelity to truth, mercy and justice extort unwitting re- 
spect. These men reject the gospel, not because it rebukes 
their vices, but because they are taught by certain of its 
clergy, and the conduct of a multitude of its professors, that 
it sanctions the most horrible cruelt}' and oppression, allowing 
the rich and powerful forcibl}' to reduce the poor and helpless 
to the condition of working animals, articles of commerce, 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 249 

and to keep their posterit}' in ignorance and degradation to 
the end of time. 

It is certainly no exaggerated statement, that not one ser- 
mon in a thousand deUvered at the North contains the slio-ht- 
est allusion to the duties of Christians towards the colored 
population ; while at the South multitudes of the clergy 
are as deeply involved in the iniquity of slavery as their 
hearers. It is no libel on the great body of our Northern 
clergy to say that, in regard to the wrongs of the colored 
people, instead of performing the part of the good Samari- 
tan, their highest merit consists in following the example of 
the priest and Levite in passing by on the other side without 
inflicting new injuries on their wounded brother. 

What does the church? She declares from her lowest 
to her highest judicatories that slavery shall not be inter- 
fered with ; that the system is legal — nay, even Scriptural 
— and that they who declare it an outrage against Republi- 
canism and the Bible, are fanatics and incendiaries. 

Lewis Tappan — 1855. 

The Abolitionists have not only to contend with the slave 
power, with a pro-slaver}^ government, with ecclesiastical 
bodies and national societies in complicity with slaver}^ but 
with a large body of ministers, editors and church-members, 
in the free States, who style themselves anti-slavery people, 
and yet afford aid and countenance to the iniquitous S3'stem 
by their apologies, m^'stifications, glosses and misstate- 
ments. 

Arthur Tappan — 1857. 

We appear to be making no progress in enlisting the 
churches in favor of anti-slaverv missions, or in brino-in«5" 
them to our views respecting; fellowshipping slaveholders and 
slaveholding churches. What can we expect from the 
almost universal church in this country, that, even in the 
free States, grinds the face of the colored people with the 
denial of every, or nearly everj', political and religious, civil 
and social privilege? Even here, in Orthodox Connecticut, 
they are driven to associate in separate churches, separate 
schools, and to lie in separate burying-grounds, and are 
ignored in all their civil rights as citizens, except that of pay- 
ing taxes. 



250 GARPJSOX AND HIS TIMES. 

I could fill a hundred pages ^Yith citations not less 
emphatic than these, from scores of earnest evangeli- 
cal men, against whom there was nevTU* a suspicion of 
heresy. I have taken these simply because they were 
close at hand. When anybody can exculpate the 
American clergy and churches from the above charges, 
he will have nothing further to do to sweep away as 
lies the accusations of Mr. Garrison and his associates. 
Until then let men cease their attempts to evade the 
issue by charging Abolitionists with enmity to evangel- 
ical reli2:ion. 

I have already given the Freewill Baptists credit for 
their refusal to admit slaveholding churches to their 
communion. The Old School Covenanters also de- 
serve mention for their firm and consistent opposi- 
tion to slavery. Some of them heartily co-operated 
with the Garrisonians. The Eev. J. 11. W. Sloane, 
then of New York, now of Allegheny, Penn., never 
hesitated to stand on our platform even when charges of 
infidelity were flying thickest about our heads. More- 
over, it should not be forgotten that "The Free Pres- 
byterian Church" was organized somewhere about 
1850, by seceders from the two larger Presbyterian 
bodies, on account of their pro-slavery attitude. One 
of the leaders in this movement was tha Ivev. John 
Eankin of Ohio, who bore a faithful testimony against 
slavery even before the days of Mr. Garrison ; another 
was the Kev. Arthur B. Bradford, of Enon Valley, 
Penn., one of the most faithful friends of freedom. 

It has often been said that the Abolitionists did not 
recognize the anti-slaver}^ work done by ministers and 
private Christians. This is a great mistake. Such 
men were always honored, and received on our plat- 
form with an eager welcome. We were too grateful 
for their help to neglect them. If men from the 
churches came in a half-hearted spirit, their mouths 
filled with apologies for their pro-slavery brethren, and 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 251 

with only hard words for the Abolitionists, and seek- 
ing to lower the standard in deference to the feelings 
and wishes of the apologists for slavery, they were 
stoutly resisted, of course. But no earnest Christian 
worker was ever repelled. 

It is often said that Garrisonian Abolitionists sinofled 
out evangelical ministers and churches for censure, 
letting the liberals escape. There is not a shadow of 
truth in this accusation. I doubt if evanirelical min- 
isters and churches were ever once spoken of as a class 
distinct from others. Certainly there never was any 
occasion for such discrimination, for the liberal churches 
were as recreant as the evangelical, and our resolutions 
included them all alike. We did not even make the 
Quakers an exception, for they, in their associated 
capacity, were scarcely less delinquent than the rest. 
The ministers, elders and overseers were opposed to 
the anti-slavery agitation, and private members were 
often proscribed and sometimes disowned for their abo- 
litionism. Many Quaker preachers were in the con- 
stant practice of aUuding in their ministrations to the 
anti-slavery movement as organized " in the will of 
man," and therefore unworthy of the support of 
•Friends : and the members of the body were exhorted 
to "keep in the quiet," to "mind their own business," 
and not mix themselves with the agitators of the day. 
One of the bitterest and most vehement pro-slavery 
preachers I ever heard was an eminent minister of the 
Society of Friends in New York. It was the monthly 
meeting dominated by this man that disowned the ven- 
erable Quaker, Isaac T. Hopper, the sweet-hearted 
Charles Marriott, and James S. Gibbons, the faithful 
friend of the slave, for nothing but their activity in 
the anti-slavery cause. Quaker meeting-houses were 
generally closed against anti-slavery lecturers. 

Kev. Samuel J. May, in his "Recollections of tho 



252 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

Anti-Slavery Conflict," tells us that ^^hen, in 1835, at 
the suggestion of some Friends, he went to Newport at 
the time of the New England Yearly Meeting, in the 
hope of finding some opi)ortunity of presenting the 
claims of the cause to the Quakers who Avere expected 
to assemble there, he found that the leaders of the body 
had hired every hall in the city to prevent him from 
gaining a hearing; and they even attempted, though 
unsuccessfully, to exclude him from one of the board- 
ing-houses frequented by members of the sect. During 
the two years that I was the Secretary and General 
Agent of the Rhode Island Anti-Slavery Society, there 
was no influence workini? asfainst the cause more insid- 
ious or potent than that of the Quakers. 

When the facts illustrating the pro-slavery attitude 
of the churches are presented as above, we are often 
referred to the uprising of the clergy of New England 
to resist the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and to 
what they did afterwards in support of the Republican 
party, especially during the war. Yes, thank God ! 
they did rally in that crisis, and I am not sure that 
without their aid the country could have been saved. 
For what they did at that time and afterwards let them 
have the full measure of credit that is their due. But 
I insist that their activity then neither disproves ^vhat 
I have said of their attitude during the twenty preced- 
ing years, nor furnishes any excuse for the course they 
pursued during that period. But for their indiflerence 
to the wrongs of the slave, their apologies for slave- 
holding, or their guilty silence on the subject, the 
Slave Power \vould probably not even have thought of 
repealing the Missouri Compromise. After the slave- 
holders had received for years from Northern profes- 
sors of theolo2:v the comfortini2r assurance that slave- 
holdins: was not a sin, and that the Abolitionists were 
fanatics, meddling with w^hat did not concern them, 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 253 

and when they had observed that the great body of 
Christian men at the North apparently cared nothing 
for shivery in any way, what more natural than that 
they should conclude that the compact of 1820 could be 
annulled without more than a ripple of excitement? If 
the churches had been alive to the slavery question 
from 1830 to 1850, that compact would never have 
been annulled. 



254 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 



XY. 

Activity of Women — Example of England and Virginia— Mrs 
Mott in the Convention of 1833 — Female Societies— Sarah and 
Angelina Grimkd— Their Visit to New York— Their Labors in 
Massachusetts — The "Brooklield Bull"- Whittier's Poem — 
" Sonthside " Adams and Governor Wise. 

One special sign of the rapid progress of the cause 
from 1835 to 1838 was seen in the increasing activity 
of women in its behalf. The reports current among 
us of the mighty work which had been done by the 
women of England, especially in the way of petition- 
ing Parliament for the immediate emancipation of the 
slaves of the West Indies, had awakened a deep in- 
terest and created no little enthusiasm. American 
women were learning to imitate the example of their 
sisters in Great Britain. Nor were they without an 
example of a simihir kind among the women of their own 
country— even in Vu-ginia ! Many reproaches have 
been heaped upon the anti-slavery women of the North 
for forsaking their " appropriate sphere," but the credit 
for originality in taking that dreadful step, so much 
deplored by sentimental apologists of slavery, belongs 
to the women of the Ancient Dominion. Honor to 
whom honor is due. After the Southampton insur- 
rection of 1831, at least two petitions from women 
were presented in the Virginia House of Delegates. 
One of these was from Augusta County, and signed 
b}' tlu-ee hundred and forty-three of the sex ; the 
other was "the memorial of the female citizens of 
Fluvanna." Of the purport of the first of these peti- 
tions 1 have no knowledge, save that it was referred 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 255 

to by Benjamin Watkins Leigh as being of an anti- 
slavery character. The second was a most eloquent 
appeal to the House of Delegates to devise a method 
for the abolition of slavery, the evils of which were 
most feelingly depicted by the petitioners. If the 
Legislature of Virginia had given heed to this appeal, 
and entered upon the work of abolition in friendly co- 
operation with the Abolitionists of the North, in what 
a different channel might have run the tides of Ameri- 
can history ! 

In the Convention which formed the American 
Anti-Slavery Society a small number of women were 
in constant attendance, not as members, but as specta- 
tors. The names of three only of these have been 
preserved : Lucretia Mott, Esther Moore, and Lydia 
White — all Quakers, the first a minister of her sect in 
high standing. So broad and free was the spirit of 
the Convention, and so glad were its members of any 
manifestation of interest in the cause, that the pres- 
ence of these women Avas not felt to be an impropriety ; 
and when Lucretia Mott arose to speak, as she did 
more than once, not one of the clerical members cried 
shame, or even remembered to throw at her a text 
from St. Paul. At first, Avhen she seemed to be hesi- 
tating lest she should be deemed an intruder by some, 
the orthodox President, Kev. Beriah Green, was 
prompt to encourage her. " Go on, madam," he said, 
"w^e shall all be glad to hear you," and out of the 
Convention came other voices also, saying heartily, 
"Go on," "Go on." Thus w^elcomed, she did go on, 
and Mr. May says that " she made a more impressive 
and effective speech than any other that was made in 
the Convention, excepting only our President's closing 
address." She spoke repeatedly after this, and so 
l^ertinently that some of her suggestions upon topics 
before the Convention were adopted. Esther Moore 
and Lydia White also took part in the discussions. 



256 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

"When humanity is uppermost in the hearts of men, 
and a noble cause inspires their enthusiasm, how 
quickly prejudice melts away ! If the propriety of 
Avoman's speaking in pul)lic had been introduced in 
that body as an abstract question, how many of the 
members would have been quick to cite the authority 
of Paul against the practice. But when the women 
themselv^es were actually present, and seeking an op- 
portunity to speak for the enslaved, no one even 
thought of objecting. Near the close of the Conven- 
tion a resolution was introduced and adopted in these 
"svords : — 

" That the thanks of the Convention be presented to our 
female friends for the deep interest they have manifested in 
the cause of anti-slavery during the long and fatiguing 
session of this Convention." 

And this is the way that " the woman question " was 
first introduced into the anti-slavery cause. "Ah," 
says some one, "but those women were not enrolled as 
members of the Convention ; they only spoke, in an 
exceptional way, by sufierance." Very true ; but how 
is the principle involved in any way affected by the 
question of membership? Was not Paul's injunction 
to " keep silence " as binding upon spectators as upon 
members? lam quite sure that if Paul himself had 
been a meml)er of the Convention — as he would 
have been very likely to be if he had been living in 
that generation— and had once looked into the face of 
Lucretia Mott, he would have been among the first to cry 
out, "Go on, madam, we shall all be glad to hear you." 
He would have been quick to perceive that his rule of 
" silence," however proper and necessary at the time 
and for the people among whom it was promulgated, 
would be an absurdity if applied to the women of 
America, and especially to such women as honored 
that Convention by their presence. St. Paul was no 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 257 

fool, whatever folly may be attributed to him by those 
who would liive to use his words as a cudgel to beat 
back the friends of progress in their onward march. 
It is not too much to say that Lucretia Mott, who, as 
I write, still lives in revered old age, to make sweeter 
and purer, by her gracious presence, the moral atmos- 
phere of the world, must be reckoned among those who 
have done the most to break the fetters of the Ameri- 
can slaves. She was an Abolitionist in the days when, 
even in her own sect, the name was one of reproach, 
and when the rulers in the church would have been 
ghid to silence her voice or cast her out of the syna- 
gogue. No more shining example of all the virtues 
that exalt womanhood, and make it a power for the 
redemption of the human race from ignorance and sin, 
can be found in the history of the world. The bigotry 
that would silence a voice so potent for good as hers, 
or presume to limit her " sphere " by any ancient rule 
or law, belongs rather to the middle ages than to the 
nineteenth century. It is not that she is or has been 
eloquent above many others, but that the simplest 
words spoken by her are endued with a power which 
CHARACTER alouc cau give to any human utterance. 

The reader has already seen with what courage the 
Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society faced the mob of 
"gentlemen of property and standing" in 1835. Sim- 
ilar societies were formed in other cities and towns, 
and in May, 1837, a convention of anti-slavery women 
from the different States was held in New York. It 
was an object of scorn and ridicule on the part of the 
press, both secular and religious, but its members were 
too deeply in earnest in their work to care for that. 
When they thought of the degradation and helpless- 
ness of the shive women of the South, their hearts 
told them it was their duty to do what they could for 
their deliverance from so terrible a fate. They took 
counsel together as to the ways and means by which 

83 



258 GAREISOX AND HIS TIMES. 

tlicy might hope to succeed in arousing the women of 
the North to a sense of their responsibility for the 
crimes and woes of slavery. A stream of vulirar 
abuse was poured upon their heads, and their proceed- 
ings were shamefully perverted and travestied in the 
newspapers. I venture to say that during the ensuing 
three months more pulpits made that convention a 
subject for stinging reproach than Avere moved to utter 
a testimony against slaver\^ itself. But what a change ! 
The ground which the anti-slavery Avomen won in face 
of such a storm of missiles, and which they trod with 
bleeding feet, is now occupied by the v/omen of the 
popular churches, Avho ride over it, four-in-hand, with 
the applause of the world ringing in their ears. No 
meetings now are more popular than those of Avomen 
associated in missionary societies and in other agencies 
for benevolent Avork. They are not even aware of the 
toils and sacrifices by Avhich the highway on Avhich they 
travel Avith so much ease and pleasure was cast up for 
their use, and many of them Avill, no doubt, be ready 
to cast stones at those Avho shall presume to take any 
ncAv step forAvard. But this is no ground for dis- 
couragement ; it has been so from the beginning, and 
Avill be so doubtless to the end. Let the Avords of 
LoAvell cheer us : — 

'^ Get but the Truth once uttered, and 'tis like 
A star new-born, that drops into its place, 
And which, once circling in its placid round, 
Not all the tumults of the earth can shake." 

It Avas in the darkest hour of the movement, Avhen 
many Avere fainting 1)y the Avay, thattAvo noble women 
from South Carolina came among us Avith Avords of 
hope and cheer. Sarah and Angelina Grimke, daugh- 
ters of Judge John F. Grimke, and sisters of the late 
Thomas S. Grimke, of Charleston, Avho took so prom- 
inent a part in resisting the tide of Nullification in that 
State in 1831-32, left South Carolina because they 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 259 

could no longer endure existence in an atmosphere 
polluted by slavery, and because they desired to do 
something to arouse the white women of the country 
to a sense of their responsibility for the wrongs and 
woes of their sisters in bondage. They had resided 
in Philadelphia several years before " The Liberator " 
first appeared. They had been brought up in the 
Episcopal Church ; but they found that church so 
wedded to slavery, that they withdrew from it and 
joined themselves to the Orthodox Quakers, among 
wdiom Sarah, the elder of the two, became an approved 
minister. In 1836 Angelina published a heart-moving 
"Appeal to the Women of the South," on the subject 
of slavery. The appearance of this pamphlet sug- 
gested to Mr. Wright, the Secretary of the American 
Anti-Slavery Society, that the author and her sister 
might do a great deal of good if they would consent 
to come to New York, and address companies of women 
in private houses, disclosing to them what they had 
witnessed of the degrading influences of slavery in 
their native State. They entered upon this work at 
Mr. Wright's invitation, though at their own expense. 
So much interest did they awaken that no parlor or 
drawing-room could hold the crowds of Avomen who 
pressed to hear them. The Rev. Dr. Dunbar, the 
Scotch pastor of the Baptist church in McDougal 
Street, opened his lecture-room to them ; and when 
this in turn became too small, they spoke several times 
in the church of the Eev. Henry G. Ludlow. Their 
appearance was most impressive, and the revelations 
they made of the wrongs and immoralities of slavery 
produced a powerful elfect. Angelina, in the words of 
Lucy Stone, " had rare gifts. The eloquence which 
is born of earuestness in a noble purpose gave her 
anointed lips." She was then in her womanly prime, 
handsome in person and graceful in manner, with a 
musical and ringing voice, as penetrating as it was 



260 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

pleasant. In her simple Quaker garb, her intelligent 
lace lighted up with animation, as she stood before an 
audience, she presented a most lovely picture of 
womanhood. 8he was entirely self-possessed, with- 
out a suggestion of masculine assurance, and mistress 
of her facts and of all the questions to which they 
were related. 

As might have been expected, the appearance at the 
North of these women, self-exiled from the land of 
slavery, and devoting themselves to the work of cre- 
ating sympath}^ for their sisters in bonds, caused no 
little excitement. The slaveholders were angry and 
abusive, and so also w^ere their Northern apologists. 
But the Abolitionists regarded them with affection and 
reverence for their works' sake, and indulged the 
brightest hopes from the influence they w^ere fitted to 
exert. When the Seventy agents of the American 
Anti-Slavery Society gathered in New York for instruc- 
tion, these women consented to meet with them and to 
give them the benefit of their knowledge and experience 
of the workings of slavery. They also attended the 
Women's Anti-Slavery Convention referred to above, 
and took an active part in the proceedings. Early in 
1837 the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society invited 
them to come and labor among the w^omen of that 
State. Thither they Avent at the close of the New 
York anniversaries, and spent nearly or quite a year. 
They went from place to place, as the way opened before 
them, speaking sometimes in private parlors, some- 
times in vestries or halls, and occasionally in a church. 
It mattered not whether the place were large or small, 
it was sure to be overcrowded. Women, as they re- 
turned from the meetings, gave glowing accounts of 
w4iat they had heard, and often expressed the wish that 
their fathers, husbands and brothers might enjoy an 
opportunity of listening to what affected them so 
deeply. The interest and curiosity awakened by 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 261 

their labors increased so much that many men desired 
to hear them. It was known that the hidies them- 
selves had no ol^jection to the presence of men in 
their meetings. Quakers that they were, they had no 
horror of addressing promiscuous asseml)lies. At 
length the liev. Amos A. Phelps, General Agent of 
the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, being in L^'nn 
at tlie time when they were speaking to a crowd of 
women in the great Methodist church on the Common, 
overcome by curiosity, forgot the injunction of Paul, 
stepped inside the door with a friend and stayed till the 
addresses were over. After this no effort was made 
to exclude men from the meetings, and they Hocked to 
them in crowds. The efforts of Mr. Phelps to induce 
a restoration of the rule, which he had been the first to 
break, were ludicrous enough ; but his Orthodox 
brethren had been quick to add this to the list of his 
sins in becoming an Abolitionist, and to charge the 
anti-slavery movement Avith a tendency if not a design 
to put woman out of her sphere and to disturb the 
sacred foundations of social life. This added not a lit- 
tle to the burdens which Mv. Phelps had been required 
to bear in becoming an Abolitionist, and which I am 
glad to say he had borne firmly and bravely. He was 
fitted l)y ability and culture for a high place in his de- 
nomination, and here was a fresh obstacle laid in his 
path by his own hand. The women at that day, as in 
the present, were the strongest allies of the clergy, and 
in many things their main reliance. The ladies from 
South Carolina were making a very deep impression 
upon their sex wherever they went, and pro-slavery 
ministers felt that some strong measures must be taken 
to counteract their influence. I believe they were 
more afraid of those two women than they would have 
been of a dozen lecturers of the other sex. 

When the General Association of Congregational 
Ministers met that summer in West Brookfield, the 



262 • GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

mana2:ers laid their heads toQ^ether and came to the 
conckisiou to make the usual Pastoral Letter the vehi- 
cle of au assault upon the obnoxious ladies as enticing 
^vomen from their appropriate sphere and loosening the 
foundations of the faniih^ The preparation of the 
document, whether by special appointment or the regu- 
lar working of the ecclesiastical red-tape I know not, 
was assigned to the Eev. Dr. Nehcmiah Adams, who 
afterwards, by his subserviency to the Skive Power, 
earned for himself the sobriquet of "Southside." lie 
was the man just fitted to produce that combination of 
shallow sophistry with pious sentimentalism, in a letter 
to the churches, which the occasion required. The doc- 
ument opened the sul)ject by referring to "perplexed 
and agitating subjects" (meaning the one subject of 
slavery), "which are now common amongst us," and 
then mildly suggested that they "should not be forced 
upon any church as matters for debate at the hazard of 
alienation and division." As the pro-slavery party was 
certain to create "alienation and division" in any 
church where slavery was discussed, this could only 
mean that the subject should not be introduced at all in 
any church. "We are compelled to mourn," said this 
Protestant encyclical, "over the loss of that deference 
to the pastoral office which no minister would arrogate, 
but which is at once a mark of Christian urbanity, 
and a uniform attendant of the full influence of reljo:- 
ion upon the individual character." The churches 
were reminded of "the importance of maintaining that 
respect and deference to the pastoral office which is 
enjoined in the Scriptures, and which is essential to the 
best influence of the ministry on you and your chil- 
dren." "One way," said these "overseers," "in which 
this respect has been in some cases violated, is in encour- 
aging lecturers or i)reachers on certain topics of reform 
(meaning slavery) to present their sul)jects within the 
parochial limits of settled pastors without their con- 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 263 

sent. Your minister is ordained of God to be your 
teacher, and is commissioned of God to feed the Hock 
over whicli the Holy Ghost hath made him overseer. 
If there are certain topics upon which he does not 
preach with the frequency or in the manner that would 
please you, it is a violation of sacred and important 
risrhts to encoura2:e a stranc^er to present them. Def- 
ercnce and subordintition are essential to the happiness 
of society, and peculiarly so in the relation of a people 
to their pastor." 

This is Ili<rh Church Cons^rescationalism in all its 
naked deformity. It is gravely assumed that every 
clergyman settled over a parish holds a commission 
from God, and is empowered by the Holy Ghost to 
determine what subjects shall be discussed, and what 
lecturers shall be permitted to open their mouths 
w^ithin the parochial limits ; and the members of the 
churches are reminded that they cannot disregard this 
Divine arrano^ement without a "violation of the most 
sacred and important rights," nor without endangering 
the loss of their piety. " Obey them that have the 
rule over you, and submit yourselves,^' said these parish 
popes, who, indifferent themselves to the wrongs of 
the slaves, would, if possible, have stopped the mouth 
of any other person w^hose humanity impelled him to 
remember those in bonds as bound w^ith them. 

In the next place, these lords over God's heritnge 
call the attention of the churches to '' the dangers which 
at present seem to threaten the female character with 
widespread and permanent injury." From what source 
did these dangers arise? Were these men, " commis- 
sioned of God " to rule the parishes of Massachusetts, 
alarmed by the fact that a vast body of w^omen at the 
South w^ere degraded to the level of chattelhood, 
bought and sold, like calves and pigs, at the pleasure 
of their owners ; with no right or power to protect 
their own virtue, kept in the lowest ignorance and 



264 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

clcgra elation, and often compelled to toil in the field 
under the lash of a brutal overseer? "Were these men 
awake Jit last to " the dansrers that threatened the 
female character" while these infamous crimes were 
tolerated? Oh, no ! Their tender sensibilities were 
aroused by the appalling fact that two educated and 
refined Christian women had come to Massachusetts 
to expose these crimes, and to enti'cat their sisters to 
do what they could to prevent them ! In this terrible 
phenomenon they saw ground for serious apprehension 
lest the natural delicacy of womanhood should be im- 
paired ! Of course they were in favor of all proper 
forms of activity on the part of woman. In "unob- 
trusive and private " ways she might exert a " softening 
influence on man's opinions." She might teach in the 
Sunday school, and "lead religious inquirers "to her 
pro-slavery "pastor for instruction." But she must 
not transcend the " modesty of her sex." " We cannot 
but regret," the parish popes go on to say, " the mis- 
taken conduct of those who encouras^e females to bear 
an obtrusive and ostentatious part in measures of re- 
form, and countenance any of the sex who so far for- 
get themselves as to itinerate in the character of public 
lecturers and teachers." "Itinerate ! " how shocking ! 
If they Avould only settle over a parish, it would not 
be so bad. "We especially deplore," said these nicely 
scrupulous guardians of female purity, " the intimate 
acquaintance and promiscuous conversation of females 
with regard to things ' which ought not to be named,' 
by which that delicacy which is the charm of domestic 
life, and which constitutes the true infiuence of woman 
in society, is consumed, and the way opened, as we 
apprehend, for degeneracy and ruin." The unblushing 
licentiousness of the slave system gave them not the 
least concern ; but that the iniquity should be exposed 
to the women of Massachusetts, in such language as 
refined Christian ladies know how to use, was more than 



GAKRISON AND HIS TIMES. 2G5 

the tender sensibilities of these ministers, who claimed 
to be commissioned of God and to speak in the name 
of the Holy Ghost, could bear ! 

Strange as it now seems, scores of churches or 
vestries that might otherwise have been opened to the 
sisters Grimke w^ere now rigidly closed. In some 
instances men, and women too, who had acted with 
the Abolitionists, bowed their necks under the yoke 
imposed upon them by their pro-slavery pastors, and 
thenceforth closed their ears to the cry of sufferino* 
humanity. It was a compensation for this melancholy 
blindness and subserviency to hear the ringing voice 
of Whittier in lines worthy of the occasion : — 

" So this is all — the utmost reach 

Of priestly power the mind to fetter ! 
Wheu laymen think, when women preach, 

A ' war of words ' — a ' Pastoral Letter ! ' 
Now, shame upon ye, parish Popes! 

Was it thus with those, your predecessors, 
Who sealed with racks, and fire, and ropes 

Their loving-kindness to transgressors ? 

" A * Pastoral Letter,' grave and dull ! 

Alas ! in hoof and horns and features, 
How difierent is your Brookfield hull 

From him who thunders from St. Fetor's ! 
Your pastoral rights and powers from harm, 

Think ye, can words alone preserve them ? 
Your wiser fathers taught the arm 

And sword of temporal power to serve them. 



" Your fathers dealt not as ye deal 

With ' non-professing ' frantic teachers ; 
They bored the tongue with red-hot steel, 

And flayed the backs of ' female preachers,' 
Old Newbury, had her fields a tongue. 

And Salem's streets could tell their story 
Of fainting woman dragged along, 

Gashed by the whip, accursed and gory ! 

" And will ye ask me why this taunt 

Of memories sacred from the scorner ? 
And why, with reckless hand, I plant 
A nettle on the graves ye honor ? 
34 



2Q6 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 



Not to reproach New England's dead 
This record from the past I summon, 

Of manhood to the scaffold led, 
And suffering and heroic ■woman. 

** No, for yourselves alone I turn 

The pages of intolerance over, 
That, in their spirit, dark and stem, 

Ye haply may your own discover ! 
For, if yo claim the 'pastoral right' 

To silence Freedom's voice of warning, 
And from your precincts shut the light 

Of Freedom's day around ye dawning j 

*' If, when an earthquake voice of power, 

And signs in earth and heaven, are showing 
That forth in its appointed hour 

The Spirit of the Lord is going; 
And, with that Spirit, Freedom's light 

On kindred, tongue, and people breaking, 
Whose slumbering millions, at the sight. 

In glory and in strength are waking; 

" When for the sighing of the poor, 

And for the needy, God hath risen, 
And chains are breaking, and a door 

Is opening for the souls in prison; 
If then ye would, with puny hands. 

Arrest the very work of Heaven, 
And bind anew the evil bands 

Which God's right arm of power hath riven 5 

" What marvel that, in many a mind, 

Those darker deeds of bigot madness 
Are closely with your own combined, 

Yet 'less in anger than in sadness'? 
What marvel, if the people learn 

To claim the right of free opinion ? 
What marvel, if at times they spurn 

The ancient yoke of your dominion? 



"But ye, who scorn the thrilling tale 

Of Carolina's high-souled daughters. 
Which echoes here the mournful wail 

Of sorrow from Edisto's Avatcrs, 
Close while ye may the public ear. 

With malice vex, with slander wound them; 
The pure and good shall throng to hear. 

And tried and manly hearts surround them. 



GARRISON AND TTIS TIMES. 267 

" O, ever may the Power which led 

Their way to such a fiery trial, 
Aud strengthened womanhood to tread 

The wine-press of such self-denial, 
Be round them in an evil land. 

With wisdom and with strength from heaven, 
"With Miriam's voice and Judith's hand, 

And Deborah's song, for triumph given! 

" And what are ye who strive with God 

Against the ark of his salvation. 
Moved by the breath of prayer abroad, 

With blessings for a dying nation? 
What, but the stubble and the hay 

To perish, even as flax consuming. 
With all that bars his glorious way, 

Before the brightness of his coming?" 

Whether the attempt of the leading Congregational 
clergy of Massachusetts, under a direct and most 
audacious assumption of power from God, to exclude 
from their parishes the light of heaven upon the guilt 
and danger of American slavery, was a less revolting 
crime, against Liberty than the efforts of statesmen and 
politicians to put down the anti-slavery agitation by 
statutory enactments, or than the alliance of "gentle- 
men of property and standing" with the mobocratic 
elements of the country to effect the same object, let 
the reader judge for himself. And let it be remem- 
bered that, of the men who committed that crime, not 
one ever lost, on that account, his standing in his 
denomination. " Southside " Adams, the author of the 
"Pastoral Letter," though he served the cause of slav- 
ery with a willing mind until it w^as overthrown by 
war, was honored in his death as a saint " without spot 
or wrinkle," and that, too, by men of strong anti- 
slavery professions ! The Rev. Dr. Nathan Lord, also, 
President of Dartmouth College, while enjoying the 
uninterrupted fellowship of his denomination, was per- 
mitted for twenty years or more to teach the young 
men under his care (New England boys, some of them 
candidates for the Christian ministry!) that "slavery 



268 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

is an institution of God according to natural religion," 
and "a positive institution of revealed religion." If 
he had swerved but a hair's-breadth from any doctrine 
of the Orthodox scheme of theology, the churches 
would speedily have found a Avay of ejecting him from 
his chair ; but as he only covered a great national crime 
with the mantle of Christianity, he was left undisturbed 
for a score of years as a teacher of practical atheism in 
a New England college. The men who extended the 
right hand of Christian fellowship to Doctors Adams 
and Lord while they lived (taking no note of their pro- 
slavery attitude and utterances as of any account) , and 
canonized them in death, made the air of New England 
hot for years with denunciations of Garrison and 
other faithful friends of the slave, as infidels ! These 
facts are wormwood and gall, but there is no bitterness 
in my statement of them — only a feeble effort to set 
them in their true light, that generations to come may 
know amidst what darkness and against what odds the 
Abolitionists of the United States fought their battle. 
There is an incident in the career of " Southside " 
Adams, which, as I shall not have occasion to refer to 
him again, may as well be told here. It is certainly 
too good to be lost. In 1854 he conceived the idea 
that " the Northern antagonism to slavery " might be 
" diverted into a mutual effort with the South to plan 
for the good of the African race ; " and thus " effectu- 
ally supersede the present bitter abolition feeling and 
measures." The pro-slavery divines, though intensely 
opposed to immediate emancipation, often prated in a 
vague way of their anxiety to do something " for the 
good of the African race." The slaves, for all them, 
might perish in their chains, but "the African race" 
commanded their sympathy. Dr. Adams in meditat- 
ing upon his scheme, was so fascinated that he resolved 
to attempt its execution. He was sure that the dear 
slaveholders, who had been so much abused by the 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 269 

Abolitionists, would respond to his wishes most 
heartily ; and so he sent to a number of them in 
different States a series of mild interrogatories, which 
he begged them to answer. Among the Southern 
men thus addressed, and whose aid Dr. Adams fondly- 
hoped to secure in furtherance of his most benevolent 
scheme, was the Hon. Henry A. Wise, of Virginia. 
Mr. Wise replied in a letter which first met the eye of 
the Doctor in a public journal. It contained this pas- 
sage, from which the spirit of the whole may be safely 
inferred : — 

" What business have you to interest yourself about it 
[slavery] ? Why take a thought about benefiting the race 
of my slave, more than about benefiting the race of my ox 
or my ass, or anything else that is mine?" 

This was certainly a poser. What answer the Doc- 
tor made, if any, I know not ; but if Mr. Wise had 
watched the course of the great body of the Northern 
clergy on the slavery question, he might with good 
reason have inferred that they cared as little for the 
slave as they did for the ox, or the ass, or any other of 
of the slaveholder's chattels. The Kichmond "En- 
quirer" gave the Doctor this bit of instruction : — 

" Mr. Adams's hope of handling slavery with silk gloves, 
and of bringing slaveholders to tolerate the mildest possible 
opposition to slavery, is a fallacy. Mr. Wise is as fierce on 
Mr. Adams as he is on Mr. Garrison ; and that man must 
be a veritable verigreen who dreams of pleasing slavehold- 
ers, either in church or state, by any method but that of let- 
ting slavery alone." 

And yet, after this snub. Dr. Adams went on with 
his " Southside View," and probably remained " a 
veritable verigreen " to the day of his death. 

But " Carolina's high-souled daughters " found work 
enough to do in Massachusetts, in spite of the " Brook- 



270 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

field Bull." There were churches and even ministers 
in the State who did not acknowledge the Divine 
jurisdiction of the " jDarish popes," and were not un- 
willing that women, possessing the proper qualifica- 
tions, should plead the cause of the slave. The 
proscribed women were heard in more than fifty cities 
and towns, and did not once fail to make a powerful 
moral impression. Angelina spoke several times in 
the " Odeon," in Boston, to large and deeply interested 
crowds, and in the spring she addressed a Committee 
of the Massachusetts Legislature in the Representa- 
tives' Hall, having among her hearers many of the 
most eminent citizens of the State, ladies as well as 
gentlemen. . Her public labors in the cause, and those 
of her sister as well, ended with her marriage to 
Theodore D. Weld in May, 1838. The elder sister 
died some years since. Mrs. Weld's earthly life 
closed only a few days before these pages were writ- 
ten. Her memory will be fondly cherished by all who 
have any knowledge of her character or of the work 
she did for the slave. 



GAERISON AISD HIS TIMES. 271 



XVI. 

The Woman Question — The New England Convention Admits 
Women — Mr. Garrison's " Heresies " — The Clerical Appeal — 
A Confession — Attempts to Narrow the Platform — Sectarian 
Assumptions — Whittier's Testimony — Catholicity of the Move- 
ment — The Peace Discussion and its Fruits — Attempt to 
Revolutionize the Massachusetts Society — A New Paper — 
" New Organization " — Mrs. Chapman's History, " Right and 
Wrong in Massachusetts." 

The events recorded in the preceding chapter set 
the Abolitionists of Massachusetts to thinking upon two 
subjects — the rights of women and the assumptions 
of divine authority on the part of the clergy — the 
first of these particularly. It was soon discovered that 
the constitutions of the anti-slavery societies admitted 
to membership " any person " w^ho accepted their 
principles and contributed to their funds ; and as, 
from the beginning, women had done much of the 
work of the societies, in circulating petitions, collect- 
ing funds, etc., their right to full membership, to vote 
and speak, if they wished, was generally regarded as 
unquestionable. Many excellent women, perceiving 
this, were more than willing to avail themselves of 
their constitutional ris^hts. So strons: did this senti- 
ment become, that the New England Convention of 
1838 adopted this resolution : — 

'•''Resolved^ That all persons present, or who may be 
present at subsequent meetings, whether men or women, 
who agree with us in sentiment on the subject of slaver}^, 
be invited to become members, and participate in the pro- 
ceedings of the Convention." 



272 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

It was cidopted without a single negative vote. A 
very large number, if not a niajority, of those who 
voted for it were persons holding evangelical senti- 
ments, who desired in this way to express their con- 
tempt for the "Brookfield Bull." Eight orthodox 
clergymen, however, immediately removed their names 
from the roll of the Convention, and eight others 
remained to protest against the introduction of a topic 
which they said was foreign to the platform. The 
majority, however, insisted that they had taken no 
action, and should take none, upon any question of 
woman's rights, except so far as to recognize her right 
of membership in the anti-slavery societies. They had 
simply acknowledged her to be a "person," within the 
meaning of that term as used in the anti-slavery con- 
stitutions, and resolved to treat her accordingly. The 
question, they insisted, had not been arbitrarily foisted 
upon the Convention ; but had come up of itself, in the 
natural course of events, and it was a duty to decide 
it promptly and justly. When noble women w^ished 
to join our ranks, Ave could not beat them back in 
deference to conventional usages or sectarian preju- 
dices, which, in their nature, were evanescent. We 
simply left them free to act with gTeater or less public- 
ity, according to their own individual convictions. It 
was not for us to define their sphere ; to do so would 
be a usurpation. We assumed that they were compe- 
tent to take care of themselves, and needed not that 
we should put them under any restrictions. 

The local anti-slavery societies in Massachusetts 
quickly followed the example of the New England 
Convention, as the State society also did at its next 
meeting ; and thus our movement there was put upon 
the broad ground of equal rights, without regard to 
sex. There was no desire or intention on the part of 
those who took this step to embarrass or annoy their 
stricter brethren ; still less was there a purpose to 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 273 

drive them out of the mnks. We felt sure that, after 
the first excitement was over, they would be reconciled 
to so reasonable and inevitable a change, which we did 
not doubt would vindicate itself by the happiest results. 
But there is nothing more obstinate than prejudice, 
and, when fortified by a dash of temper, it does not 
readily yield to argument. The press w^as clamorous 
in its denunciation of the new " fanaticism," and the 
pro-slavery clergy attacked us on all hands as having 
openly repudiated the authority of the Scriptures, and 
cast contempt upon the Apostle Paul. They urged all 
this vehemently, in the hope of creating a division in 
our ranks, which they thought might prove fatal to our 
movement. Orthodox Abolitionists, and ministers 
especially, were harried worse than before, and charged 
by their brethren with lendins: aid to a movement 
tending directly to unsettle the foundations of social 
life, and disturb the faith of the young in the infalli- 
bility of the Bible. Great use was made of the fact 
that Mr. Garrison was no longer so orthodox as he had 
been. His views of the Sabbath, thouirh in substantial 
accord with those of Luther and Calvin and many 
others of the orthodox school, were denounced as dan- 
gerous, while it was more than suspected that his views 
upon some other subjects were not such as would pass 
muster at Andover. True, they could not allege that 
he had ever introduced his peculiar religious opinions, 
whatever they might be, in anti-slavery meetings ; but 
he did sometimes introduce them, incidentally, in 
"The Liberator,'' which, being his own property and 
the organ of no society, he did not confine exclusively 
to the discussion of slavery. Then there was his doc- 
trine of non-resistance, which was said to be turning 
the heads of many people, and unfitting them for 
political opposition to slavery. Then, again, an appeal 
was made to orthodox prejudices on the ground that 
some of the persons most prominent in the anti-slavery 

35 



274 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

ranks were Unitarians, while others had departed still 
farther from " sound views." Members of orthodox 
flocks were constantly warned of the danger of asso- 
ciating with such men, and entreated to withdraw 
themselves before making shipwreck of the fliith. In 
some instances hints were thrown out that if Garrison 
could only be put out of the way, the clergy w^ould 
take the lead in organizing a new anti-slavery move- 
ment, effectually guarded against the intrusion of men 
of unsound opinions. 

No one who understands the force of religious preju- 
dices and fears will wonder that some excellent people 
in our ranks were much perplexed by all this clamor, 
insomuch that they began to waver in their allegiance 
to the cause as then organized. Far be it from me to 
impeach their motives. It is no disgrace to a man to 
love his church or to seek its peace and security when 
he believes it to have been Divinely founded." These 
men were simply bewildered. They did not compre- 
hend the breadth of the anti-slavery platform, nor do 
justice to the s-pirit and purposes of their more liberal 
associates. For the slave's sake they desired to secure 
the co-operation of the great body of the church and 
ministry in the anti-slavery cause, and to accomplish 
so important an object it was right for them to take 
any reasonable and honorable step. But the^^ had no 
right to take up a false accusation against their associ- 
ates and to turn their backs upon them, in order to 
conciliate the favor of men who for years had rejected 
and contemned the cause of the skive. 

In the summer of 1837, "The Liberator," in the 
absence of its editor, was under my charge. During 
that time there came to Boston a Presbyterian clergy- 
man from the South, who was reported to be a slave- 
holder and who vvas afterwards proved to be such, and 
to have uttered, in the General Assembly of the Pres- 
byterian Church, the most atrocious sentiments respect- 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 275 

ing slavery. "The Liberator," after proper inquiries as 
to the facts in the case, alluded in appropriate terms to 
his admission as a preacher to Massachusetts pulpits, 
as illustrating the complicity of Northern churches with 
slavery. About the same time there were reports that 
Dr. Blagden, pastor of the "Old South" Church in 
Boston, who was known to be an ardent sympathizer 
with the South, was a slaveholder. "The Liberator" 
alluded to this fact also, and called for information. 
Forthwith appeared in a Boston paper an "Appeal 
of Clerical Abolitionists on Anti-Slavery Measures," 
signed by five Orthodox clergymen, two of them resid- 
ing in Boston and three in the vicinity. The authors 
of the "Appeal," taking occasion from what had ap- 
peared in "The Liberator" respecting the two ministers 
above referred to, accused leading Abolitionists of 
"hasty, unsparing and almost ferocious denunciation of 
a certain gentleman, because he had resided in the 
South," without first ascertaining whether he was a 
slaveholder or not. They also accused "The Libera- 
tor" of making "hasty insinuations" respecting Dr. 
Blagden, of making various unreasonable demands of 
the clergy generally, and of denouncing Christian men 
because they were not prepared to endorse all our 
measures. With a single exception, the signers of this 
manifesto had not been in any way prominent as Abo- 
litionists ; but as their accusations were an echo of what 
pro-slavery men had been saying for a long time, it 
made considerable stir. Curiously enough, its reputed 
author and first signer was a man whose habit of sever- 
ity in discussing slavery was as notorious as it was of- 
fensive to the taste of his associates. That such a man 
was found posturing as an apostle of gentleness could 
only be accounted for on the supposition that he had* 
volunteered or been selected to speak for others rather 
than for himself. The document was no doubt put forth 
in the expectation that it would prove a moral bombshell 



276 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

of the largest dimensions, and bring upon Mr. Garrison 
and the other persons marked for censure a weight of 
condemnation that would force them to fall to the^rear, 
while the conservatives would march to the front with 
colors flying, music from a full band and a general 
fusillade of applause. But its accusations were found 
upon examination to rest upon so slight a basis of fact, 
that the document fell flat from the press. Mr. Garri- 
son and the Eev. Amos A. Phelps, then the General 
Agent of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, re- 
plied to it, not so much because in itself it needed an 
answer, as because it ofiered an excellent opportunity 
to show the unreasonableness of charges long and per- 
sistently brought against the Abolitionists from many 
quarters. The signers of the "Appeal" won no fol- 
lowing, but fell into immediate obscurity. Some 
years afterwards, the author, in a letter to Mr. Garri- 
son, confessed that he had done wrong. "I feel," he 
said, "bound in duty to say to you, that to gain the 
good-will of man was the only object I had in view in 
everything that I did relative to the 'Clerical Appeal.' 
As I now look back upon it, in the light in which it has 
of late been spread before my own mind (as I doubt 
not by the Spirit of God), I can clearly see that in all 
that matter I had no regard for the glory of God or 
the good of man." This is certainly an honorable 
confession, and I am sure it won for the writer the 
S3^mpathy and respect of those who had 1)een the sub- 
jects of his accusations. Men so rarely honor them- 
selves in this way, that the confession is worthy of per- 
manent record as an example for others to follow. 

It is not my purpose to revive the controversies of 
that day in any spirit of partisanship, or to give need- 
less pain to any one who took part in them. My only 
desire is, in the exercise of such impartiality as is pos- 
sible to one who fought earnestly for principles which 
he deemed equally sound and important, to make clear 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 277 

to my readers the ground upon which Mr. Garrison 
and his friends actually stood and the difficulties with 
which they had to contend. Probably the tiiult was 
not wholly on one side. It would be strange indeed, 
if, in fighting such a battle for the freedom of the anti- 
slavery platform against foes within as well as foes 
without the camp, there were not some words spoken 
that call for the exercise of a generous charity. With- 
out impeaching the motives of others, I may at least 
Ciaim that Mr. Garrison and those who rallied around 
him as their leader, were moved by a sincere convic- 
tion that they were repelling a most mistaken and 
dangerous assault upon the integrity of the anti-slav- 
ery movement — an insidious efibrt to narrow its plat- 
form in conformity to the wishes of men, who, how- 
ever sincerely they loved the cause, yet loved their 
sects far more. 

It was one of the noblest, as it was one of the most 
conspicuous characteristics of the anti-slavery move- 
ment that it invited the co-operation of every friend 
of immediate emancipation, without distinction of 
sect, party, caste, or sex. A majority of its founders 
were no doubt Orthodox men, but the}^ no more de- 
signed to make their orthodoxy a test of membership, 
or to repel any friend of the slave on account of his 
opinions upon other subjects, than they thought of 
rehabilitating the Inquisition. If it had been proposed 
in the National Convention of 1833 to set up any test 
in order to repel the approaches of men of the Liberal 
faith, or even to keep out unbelievers and infidels, I 
am sure the proposal would have been rejected, indig- 
nantly and vehemently, by the whole body. And if 
no one, in entering the society, was to be interrogated 
as to the orthodoxy or heterodoxy of his religious 
faith, then surely no one, after becoming a member, 
could be either excluded, proscribed, or arraigned on 
that account. What if Mr. Garrison had chan^^ed his 



278 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

relii^ious opinions, or even avowed himself an infidel? 
In doin«f so he would have committed no offence for 
which he could be arraigned on the anti-slavery plat- 
form, and so long as he w^as true to the slave, and 
refrained from intruding his opinions on other subjects 
upon his fellow-laborers when engaged in anti-slavery 
work, there could be no ground of complaint against 
him. 

Now I am prepared to affirm that in no single in- 
stance did Mr. Garrison ever violate the catholicity of 
the platform. When he was Orthodox, he never ob- 
truded his orthodoxy upon his Liberal associates ; and 
he was, if possible, still more careful to observe the same 
law of propriety and good faith after his religious opin- 
ions changed. He only claimed for himself the liberty 
which he cheerfully accorded to others. If a Presby- 
terian joined the society, he was not supposed to put him- 
self under any restriction as to propagating Presbyterian 
opinions anywhere outside of anti-slavery meetings. 
If he were a preacher, he was not expected to abandon 
his pulpit ; if he were an editor, he might in his own 
columns mix Abolitionism and Presbyterianism in such 
proportions as suited his own judgment. Why, then, 
should it have been deemed an ofience in Mr. Garrison, 
if, in his own paper, for which no anti-slavery society 
was responsible, he chose to discuss the question of 
non-resistance, the rights of woman, the proper ob- 
servance of Sunday, or any question of theology in 
which he happened to feel an interest? As a matter 
of fact, there was comparatively little in regard to 
such topics in " The Liberator " — perhaps two columns 
or so weekly to twenty devoted to the anti-slavery 
cause. But Mr. Garrison would never consent to be 
gagged in his own paper. When an Orthodox editor, 
without prejudice to his anti-slavery standing, could 
print twenty columns of orthodoxy to two of Aboli- 
tionism, Mr. Garrison was not able to see what ground 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 279 

of objection there was to his printing his Abolitionism 
along with his religious views, in inverse proportions. 
Nor coulcl he understand why a man of liberal opinions, 
standing on the anti-slavery platform, should be re- 
quired to wear a strait-jacket, or hold himself under 
ban, while an Orthodox man was at perfect liberty to 
saturate his speech or his prayer through and through 
with his religious opinions. John G. Whittier, in 
some remarks suggested by the " Clerical Appeal," put 
this point very clearly. "How often," he says, "has 
the Unitarian Abolitionist heard from the lips of anti- 
slavery lecturers the doctrine of the Trinity advanced, 
as if no one ever called it in question ? How often has 
the Quaker listened to the declaration, from the same 
source, that without the Bible the slaves must neces- 
sarily die un visited of God, and candidate:? for the 
prison-house of eternal despair? How often have the 
Unitarian and the Restorationist been told that the 
slave and his master are both going down to that ever- 
lasting perdition, a belief in which they consider un- 
scriptural and absurd? Have thei/ no right to com- 
plain? Who edits the 'Anti-Slavery Magazine,' 
* Record,' and * Human Rights'? A Presbyterian, 
Trinitarian and Sabbatarian, who believes that a saving 
knowledge of God can only be derived from the Holy 
Scriptures. Who edits 'The Emancipator'? Joshua 
Leavitt, a Presbyterian clergyman, who, in spite of 
himself, occasionally 'sifts in' some of his peculiar 
views and doctrines. Yet these papers are the official, 
accredited organs of a Society made up of all denomi- 
nations. . . . Each one who differs from the Cal- 
vinistic creed has as good and substantial reasons for 
offering his appeal or protest as the five gentlemen 
who have taken offence at ' The Liberator.' " Ortho- 
dox men, as lecturers or speakers, were never ex- 
pected to put themselves under any particular restraint. 
They were not asked to divest themselves of their 



280 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

Orthodox harness and talk like Unitarians. No offence 
was taken if they employed an Orthodox phraseology 
in describing the sin of slavery and its consequences, 
or if they sometimes appealed to motives the force of 
which could be felt only by those of the Orthodox faith. 
If an Orthodox man opened a meeting with prayer, no 
Liberal objected if, according to habit, be closed with 
an ascription to the Trinity. But some of the Ortho- 
dox brethren, while themselves exercising this unre- 
stricted liberty, were often exceedingly critical of the 
speech of men of Liberal opinions, taking offence if 
there was anything in what they said that did not 
accord with the Orthodox theology. 

Against this sectarian spirit, which seemed at times 
bent upon either subordinating the anti-slavery move- 
ment to the evangelical churches, or breaking it up 
altogether, Mr. Garrison contended with might and 
main, deeming it contrary to the genius as well as to 
the fundamental principles of the organization, and 
seeino' very clearly that its effects upon the cause could 
only be disastrous. If Episcopalians, Presbyterians, 
Baptists, Methodists, Unitarians, Universalists, un- 
believers, Whigs and Democrats, could combine 
together to l)uild railroads, dig canals, erect manufac- 
tories, and promote all sorts of schemes for money- 
making, without so much as thinking of their religious 
and political differences, why should not members of the 
same sects and parties join in a common movement for 
the overthrow of the execrable system of slavery? 
AVhy, with such a gigantic crime against humanity 
confronting them, and demanding their utmost efforts 
for its suppression, should they haggle with one an- 
other for precedence, or thrust their sectarian notions 
forward as conditions of united action? 

Mr. Garrison's appeals for the catholicity of the 
platform rang out clearly from every issue of " The 
Liberator," and, throbbing as they did with the spirit 



GARRISON AND HIS TBIES. 281 

of humanity, they drew to his side a large majority of 
the anti-slavery host, who were inspired by the pur- 
pose to be true to the principle so clearly enunciated. 
A majority even of the Orthodox friends of the slave 
rallied around him, indignantly repelling the accusa- 
tions of his enemies, and maintaining his right, in 
common with others, to hold such opinions and discuss 
such subjects, outside of the anti-slavery meetings, as 
he pleased. 

When the news of the Alton tragedy reached Boston, 
Mr. Garrison expressed his sorrow in view of the fact 
that Mr. Lovejoy had died with arms in his hands. 
" We cannot in conscience," he said, "delay the ex- 
pression of our regret that our martyred coadjutor and 
his unfaltering friends in Alton should have allowed 
any provocation, or personal danger, or hope of vic- 
tory, or distrust of the protection of Heaven, to drive 
them to take up arms in self-defence. Far be it from 
us to reproach our suffering brethren, or weaken the 
impression of sympathy which has been made on their 
behalf in the minds of the people. God forbid. Yet, 
in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, who suffered him- 
self to be unresistingly nailed to the cross, we solemnly 
protest against any of his professed followers resorting 
to carnal weapons, under any pretext, or in any ex- 
tremity whatever." 

Many who were not themselves Non-resistants felt 
deep regret on account of Mr. Lovejoy's course, being 
seriously apprehensive that it would tend to lower the 
tone of the movement and lead ultimately to a bloody 
conflict. In the face of all the attempts to put the 
Abolitionists down by force, it had been of great 
advantage to them to refer to the principles of peace 
incorporated in their " Magna Charta ; " but now it 
was feared that the contest would assume another and 
a less noble shape. Mr. Lewis Tappan was anxious to 
have the subject discussed. "I was much gratified," 

36 



282 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

he said, in a letter to Mr. Garrison, "with your re- 
marks respecting the mode in which our brother 
Lovejoy met death. Is it not now a very suitable time 
to discuss, in 'The Liberator,' the Peace question fully? 
It can be done without offending any of your readers ; 
and I believe Abolitionists generally, on both sides of 
the question, and those who think they are at present 
on neither side, w^ould rejoice to see the arguments, 
for and against, on the Peace question." 

And yet, for following this excellent advice, "Mr. 
Garrison was arraigned by some of his associates upon 
the charge of intruding "a foreign topic" into his 
paper; and when, in 1«38, the discussion bore fruit 
in the organization of " The New England Non-Resist- 
ance Society," a storm burst upon his head as surpris- 
ing as it was fierce. It was insisted by many that he 
was no longer entitled to a place on the anti-slavery 
platform, or that, at least, he should take a back seat. 
Non-resistance was held to be a disqualification for the 
complete discharge of the duties of an Abolitionist. 
James G. Birney so far forgot himself as to say of those 
who felt it a duty to " love their enemies," that " it 
would seem that the duty of withdrawing from the 
Anti-Slavery Society was altogether plain. Justice to 
those with whom they are associated, and to the slave, 
requires it." Strange language this to be applied, 
among others, to the founder of the anti-slavery move- 
ment ! 

A plan was set on foot by certain men to rally a 
party at the annual meeting of the Massachusetts 
Society, in 1839, vote down Mr. Garrison's Annual 
Report, turn him and his friends out of office, and put 
the society under other management. Such, at least, 
was the report that came to Mr. Garrison and others, 
and to which they gave credit. It is only fiiir to say, 
however, that some of those who were implicated by 
the report denied its truth. A great excitement fol- 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 283 

lowed, " The Liberator " sounded an alarm, and the 
meeting was very largely attended. Whatever may 
have been the truth in respect to the alleged design, 
by a secret movement, to revolutionize the society, a 
party hostile to Mr. Garrison and " The Liberator " 
was found to be present. His non-resistance views 
were made a ground of attack, and it was urged that a 
new anti-slavery paper was needed in Massachusetts, 
which should confine itself strictly to the question of 
slavery. The discussion occupied the whole of the 
first day, and the meeting did not reach a vote until 
nearly midnight. The result of the vote was over- 
whelming in Mr. Garrison's favor. The defeated 
party, however, a short time afterwards, established a 
new paper, — " The Massachusetts Abolitionist," — of 
which Mr. Elizur Wright became the editor. A little 
later, the Rev. Amos A. Phelps resigned his place as 
one of the board of managers of the Massachusetts 
Society, alleging, as his reason for that step, that " the 
society is no longer an anti-slavery society simply, but, 
in its principles and modes of action, a woman's rights, 
non-government anti-slavery society." This change of 
front on the part of Mr. Phelps, who had been so 
prompt to condemn the "Clerical Appeal," was a great 
disappointment to many, — to no one more than to 
myself, for I had placed the highest confidence in his 
clear-sightedness as well as his integrity. I lamented 
his course quite as much for his own sake as for that 
of the cause, for I felt sure that he was preparing for 
his own lips a cup of bitter disappointment. 

Thus a nucleus for an anti-Garrison abolition move- 
ment in Massachusetts was established. Mr. Phelps 
and some other Orthodox Abolitionists seemed to have 
got it into their heads that there was a great body of 
evangelical men ready to espouse the cause the mo- 
ment they should see an anti-slavery organization 
which they could join without — to use one of the 



284 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

phrases of the time — "swallowing Garrison." Of 
course, therefore, there must be a new society; and, 
accordingly, the "Massachusetts Abolition Society" 
w^as organized in Boston, in May, 1839. After the 
organization had been completed, the Rev. George 
Trask, one of its members, came into the New Eng- 
land Anti-Slavery Convention and made a speech, in , 
which he said : " Sir, we want the men of influence in 
our ranks. It is in vain that you attempt to carry 
on any cause in this country without them. We want 
the Honorables, the D. D.s, the Rabbis of the land. 
Now, our new organization will get them. They will 
come to us, and we shall give them offices. Sir, they 
won't come unless we give them offices." Mr. Trask 
had not, on his own account, a particle of hostility to 
Mr. Garrison ; but he was full of the^notion that "the 
men of influence," w^hom the editor of "The Liberator" 
repelled, would join a society of which he was not the 
leader. How mistaken he and his associates were was 
soon made apparent. The new society did not, I 
verily believe, draw to itself so much as one of the 
men whose co-operation was thought to be so desirable 
and important. Their real hostility to Garrison, as 
the result showed, was inspired far less by any objec- 
tion they felt to his religious opinions than by their 
bitter opposition to his uncompromising Abolitionism. 
The new society had but a short and feeble existence ; 
and " The Massachusetts Abolitionist," which was to 
supersede " The Liberator," and bring the grumbling 
sectarians over to the cause in troops, under a new 
leadership, lasted but a few years, when it took the 
less obnoxious name of " Free American," and soon 
afterwards went out of sight. " The Liberator " and 
the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, on the con- 
trary, continued in the field till liberty was proclaimed 
" throughout the land, to all the inhabitants thereof." 
Such is the story, in brief, of " New Organization " 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 285 

in Massachusetts. Those who wish to see that history 
ill all its lights and shades are referred to Mrs. Maria 
W. Chapman's admirable brochure, "Right and*Wron«* 
in Massachusetts," and to the papers of the day, espec- 
ially 'yrhe Liberator" and "The Massachusetts 
Abolitionist." A considerable number of excellent, 
well-intentioned people were no doubt engaged in 
the movement, but it had its root in a most unreason- 
able distrust of Mr. Garrison, and in an utter miscon- 
ception of the grounds upon which the clergy and the 
churches opposed him. So far as the latter were con- 
cerned, it was a case of false pretences, pure and 
simple, as their behavior afterwards abundantly de- 
monstrated. 



286 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 



XVII. 

The American Society in 1839 Admits Women — Strong Protest 
Against the Measure — Scheme for Rescinding the Action in 
1840 — Struggle of the Two Parties — Transfer of " The Eman- 
cipator " — A Steamboat Excursion — The Admission of Women 
Confirmed — A Woman on the Business Committee — A New 
National Society — Its History — Its Decease — American Mis- 
sionary Association — The Old Society — "National Anti-Slavery 
Standard" and its Editors — Garrison's Tribute to Arthur Tap- 
pan — John A. Collins — N. P. Rogers — Abby Kelley. 

In 1839 the American Anti-Slavery Society, after a 
long and somewhat unpleasant discussion, decided to 
interpret the word "person" in its constitution as 
incliidinfr women as well as men. The vote stood — 
yeas, 180 ; nays, 140. The nays, it will be observed, 
w^ere much more numerous in New York than they 
had been in Boston, showing that the influence of j 
"Carolina's high-souled daughters" had been more 
potent in Massachusetts than elsewhere — perhaps 
because there an attempt had been made to silence \ 
them by an ecclesiastical bull. The act, it was un- 
derstood, was not favorably regarded by the Execu- 
tive Committee ; but in an address to the public they 
said : "The vote of the Society, being grounded on the 
phraseology of its constitution, cannot be justly re- 
garded as committing the Society in favor of any con- 
troverted principle respecting the rights of women to 
participate in public affairs." This was exactly what 
the friends of the measure had said in the discussion ; 
while the opponents had sought to defeat it upon the 
assumption that its passage would commit the Society 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 287 

to the doctrines of woman's rights, in all their length 
and breadth. Dr. Leavitt, in " The Emancipator," not 
only endorsed what the Executive Committee had said, 
but went further in the remark that "a contrary deci- 
sion, unsupported by the constitution, would have been 
taking sides on a question respecting which the Society 
is bound to entire neutrality." In view of these ex- 
pressions of opinion at headquarters, those who voted 
in the majority hoped that there would be no further 
controversy on the subject, and that the minority, 
while doubtful of the wisdom of the course that had 
been taken, would cheerfully acquiesce in the decision. 
As the year went on, however, it became more and 
more manifest that the Executive Committee of the 
Parent Society sympathized with the new organization 
rather than with its old and faithful auxiliary in Mas- 
sachusetts. There was a strong suspicion among the 
friends of the latter that the committee in New York 
was hardly acting in good faith toward the society from 
which it had received its appointment, and that it was 
actually playing into the hands of the new organization, 
in the hope of being able, at the next meeting, to 
reverse the action upon the woman question, and put 
the whole movement into a hostile attitude toward its 
founder. I do not affirm that this suspicion was just ; 
I only sa}^ it was entertained upon grounds that were 
thought to be tenable. The friends of the old organ- 
ization, therefore, were in an anxious frame of mind 
during that whole year. As the time of the anniver- 
sary of 1840 drew near, information was received in 
Boston that confirmed them in their belief that a plan 
was on foot to capture the National Society in the 
interest of the new orijanization. AYc were assured 
that private circulars had been issued for the purpose 
of securing a large attendance of those who were sup- 
posed to be friendly to such a scheme, and that 
measures had been taken to enlist the support of large 



2SS GARRISON AND HIS TDHES. 

numbers of Abolitionists in New York and its imme- 
diate vicinity. Again let me say I do not affirm that 
these reports were true ; I only affirm that they were 
honestly believed to be so. Then, just three weeks 
before the annual meeting, came the sudden announce- 
ment that " The Emancipator," the weekly organ of the 
society, had been transferred — professedly for lack of 
funds to maintain it longer, and for that reason only — 
to the New York City Anti-Slavery Society, upon the 
condition that it should be continued under the editor- 
ship of the Eev. Joshua Leavitt. As the paper was 
the property of the society, and had been published at 
its expense for years, this was regarded as an act of 
bad faith, designed to keep the paper out of the hands 
of its rightful owners, in case the scheme for revolu- 
tionizing the society should miscarry. Hot words 
were used to characterize the act, and the friends of 
the old organization never saw any reason for with- 
drawing them. It was felt that if the Executive Com- 
mittee were really unable to publish the paper for three 
weeks, until the society could have an opportunity to 
decide for itself what disposition to make of it, the 
only honorable course to take was to suspend it for 
that brief period. I do not now impeach the motives 
of the committee ; I only say, upon compulsion, as one 
bound to speak the truth, that they ivere impeached at 
the time, and that the committee defended themselves 
warmly. Those who wish to enter into the full merits 
of the question are referred to the anti-slavery papers 
of that day. I will state, however, first, that those 
concerned in the transaction stoutly denied, during the 
controversy which it provoked, that their motive for 
making the transfer was either partly or wholly to keep 
it out of the hands of Mr. Garrison and his friends. 
At an}^ rate, they put forth another reason as the only 
one existing. Secondly, Mr. Lewis Tappan, who had 
participated in the transaction, writing seven years 



f5ARRISON AIvP HIS TI3IES. 289 

afterwards to Miss Maria Waring, an English lady, 
used these exact Avords : " The paper was transferred, 
not iilonc on account of the pecuniary difficulties of the 
society, but because the Executive Committee did not 
2vish to continue it themselves, or leave it in the hands 
of their successor's of different principles,''' If this 
avowal had been frankly made at the time, there would 
have been no difference of opinion among impartial 
men as to the character of the transaction. 

Under the circumstances above described, the friends 
of the old organization in Massachusetts felt compelled 
to take some efficient measures to defeat what they 
thought an unworthy plot to change the w^holc charac- 
ter of the anti-slavery movement and place it upon a 
sectarian basis. What they did was to charter a 
steamer, to take from Providence to New York as large 
a number of deles^ates as miirht choose to attend. 
They put the fare at a low rate, and sent out a rally- 
ing-cry through " The Liberator " to all who desired 
to keep the good ship Anti-Slavery on her right 
course. 

The call was promptly responded to. Over four 
hundred delegates, many of them women, went to New 
York in the steamer "Rhode Island," prepared to do 
what they could to preserve the integrity of the anti- 
slavery movement. A happier crowd I never saw, 
and surely a more respectable body of people never 
w^ent on board a ship. They were all animated by 
what they regarded as a high and noble purpose. 
They were of one heart and one mind, of "one accord 
in one place." Songs and speeches filled up the even- 
ing hours until the time for sleep, when such as were 
fortunate enouo^h to obtain berths retired for the nisfht. 
Those less fortunate appropriated to themselves such 
portions of the steamer's floors, in cabin or on deck, as 
they found available. There are some people, with 
memories better than mine, who could tell some very 

37 



290; GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. - 

amusing stories of that passage through the Sound, 
and of the entertainment provided, or iifd provided,- 
for them upon their arrival in New York. Truth to 
say, the fuii of the occasion was mixed with some 
serious annoyances, of Avhich I shall not pretend to 
give an account. Mr. John A. Collins, the General 
Agent of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, had 
done what he could — and his qualifications as a quar- 
termaster and commissary were of no mean order — 
to provide for the wants of those modern crusaders ; 
but the quarters engaged for their accommodation were 
altogether inadequate, and scarcely less "dark, unfur- 
nitured, and mean" than the "obscure hole " in which 
Harrison Gray Otis found the editor of "The Liber- 
ator" some six or seven years before. There were no 
tents, and if there had been, it would not have been 
quite safe to set them up in the City Hall Park, or 
anywhere else under the jurisdiction of the New York" 
police of that day. But all annoyances Tvere borne with 
a good-natured patience that would have done credit 
even to veterans, and the whole company were ready, 
for roll-call at the appointed place and time. 

The anniversary of the Society was held in the fore- 
noon in the Presbyterian church on the corner of 
Madison and Catherine streets, and everything passed 
off pleasantly enough. The only circumstance that I 
remember very distinctly is, that Henry Highland 
Garnett, then a young man fresh from the Oneida 
Institute, where he had enjoyed the instruction of 
Beriah Green, made on this occasion his maiden 
speech. It was only half-believed among white people 
at that day that a negro could make a speech worth 
listening to ; but Mr. Garnett's eftbrt banished any 
lingering skepticism upon this point from the minds of 
those who heard it. The meetins: for business was 
held in the same place in the afternoon. The house 
was crowded by an audience that waited eagerly for 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 291 

tlie conflict that all know was to come. Arthur 
Tappan, the President, foreseeing a division, was 
absent, and the chair was taken by one of the Vice- 
Presidents, Francis Jackson of Massachusetts. The 
Chair, having been instructed to nominate a Business 
Committee, named for one of its members a well- 
known Quaker young lady, Abby Kelley, of Lynn, 
Mass., who had just entered the field as a lecturer, 
and to whom no objection coukl be made except on 
the cfround of sex. Considering? the fact that full 
half the members of the Society were women, whose 
rights as such had been duly acknoAvledged the year 
before, this action on the part of the Chair was emi- 
nently proper. The nomination, however, being ob- 
jected to, an exciting debate followed, in which the 
whole "woman question," as connected with the anti- 
slavery cause, was pretty thoroughly discussed. It 
was the largest business meeting the Society had ever 
held. The party opposed to women's membership had 
rallied in great strength, confirming the suspicion that 
extraordinary efibrts had been made to secure a rever- 
sal of the action of the previous year. Finally the 
Society was brought to a vote, with this result : — In 
favor of Miss Kelley's appointment, 557 ; against it, 
451. The only mistake, if there were any, was that 
Mr. Jackson did not give her a companion of her 
own sex on the committee. Whether this was an 
oversight, or because he did not happen to remember 
the name of another woman who would be willing 
to serve, I do not know. Some of the most distin- 
guished women of the Society had gone to England 
as delegates to the London Anti-Slavery Conference. 
If they "had been present, perhaps Miss Kelley would 
not have been the only woman appointed. It is to 
be observed that much of the ridicule excited by 
the appointment turned upon the fact that one woman 
Avas sent alone into the company of six or eight 
men. This was a circumstance easily turned to 



292 GARRISON AND HIS TDIES. 

account by the valgar, and they fed upon it with a 
relish, making it a basis for the vilest insinuations. 
If I should cite what some newspapers of high repute 
said about this at the time, I should disgust no less 
than astonish my readers. It is impossible tint a 
woman should not feel such insults most keenly ; !)ut 
MissKelley bore them bravely for the sake of her sisl ^rs 
in bonds, and thus, with bleeding feet, broke a pa.h 
through a thorny jungle for those who should conu 
after her. 

Then went up all over the land the cry that the 
American Anti-Slavery Society had become a woman's 
rights association, and would henceforth, besides its 
other fanaticisms, seek to overturn the family relation 
and destroy the tiiith of men in the Bible. It had, 
so it was alleged, openly defied the authority of 
Paul, and thus shown itself infidel in spirit and pur- 
j)ose. Those who had opposed the admission of 
women declared that Mr. Garrison and his friends had 
"packed the meeting;" but the Rev. Joshua Leavitt 
said, "I don't think there's any room for its to talk 
about that." Mr. Lewis Tappan, soon after the reso- 
lution admitting women to membership w^as passed, 
invited those who had voted against it to meet in the 
lecture room under the church, for the purpose of 
organizing a new society. The great body of minis- 
ters present accepted the invitation, as did many 
others, and the "American and Foreign Anti-Slavery 
Society" was speedily organized, with a constitution 
carefully guarded against the intrusion of women, 
though their activity in conventional ways, in behalf 
of the cause, was commended. The new society took 
with it all the members of the old Executive Commit- 
tee, with the single exception of James S. Gibbons, 
a highly respected member of the Society of Friends, 
whohad borne a faithful testimonj^ against the trans- 
fer of " The Emancipator," and been true in every way 
to the old society's platform. It was curious to ob- 



GAKllISOX AND HIS TIHES. 293 

sei^ve that while the pro-slavery press poured measure- 
less denunciation and ridicule upon the old society, it 
complimented the new one upon its great respectabil- 
ity, and praised its founders for their good sense in 
cutting loose from Garrison and his fanatical associ- 
ates. It seemed to us that, considering their source, 
the compliments were harder to bear than the abuse — 
that our side, after all, was the one really compli- 
mented. 

It is not to be denied that the new society presented 
a formidable fronts embracing in its ranks as it did 
Abolitionists of high standing and great popularity. 
It is not for me to cast any imputations upon the men 
who thus separated themselves from the old society. 
Doubtless the great body of them believed that they 
had taken the course best calculated to advance the 
cause. Many of them Avere no doubt sincerely alarmed 
by Mr. Garrison's alleged heresies, believing that it 
was actually his design to wage war upon the most 
sacred institutions of society. The charges against 
him were equally baseless and cruel, but for all that they 
may have been sincerely accredited. It was no doubt 
the belief of our accusers that they would speedily 
draw to their more conservative and "prudent" 
society the support of a large body of the evangelical 
ministers and laymen who had stood aloof because, as 
they said, "they could not swallow Garrison." In this 
X'espect, however, they w^ere doomed to a bitter disap- 
pointment. The men whom they hoped to conciliate 
and win, however strong their aversion to Garrison, 
yet loved the anti-slavery cause no more than they 
loved him. They still stood aloof, grumbling and 
carping over everything that either socict}^ did. Ot 
which of the two societies they were most afraid it 
was easy to see, by the direction they gave to their 
abuse. Some people, perhaps, may be inclined to 
doubt the accuracy of these statements. Let me then 



294 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

cite the testimony of Lewis Tappaii, the founder and 
leader of the new society. In his life of his brother 
Arthur, (p. 829) he says: — 

" It was said that the abolition borly was largely con?- 
posed of irreverent men, some of them of infidel sentiments ; 
that their publications were couched in harsh language, that 
the lecturers were intemperate in their speeches ; that the 
measures of the society set public opinion at detiance. 
These allegations were notorionsly untrue, as it regarded a 
major part of the advocates of tde anti-slavery reform, and 
with reference to the rest of them were much exaggerated. 
-And it is worthy of remark that when the division took 
place and a portion of the Abolitionists drew off and formed 
a separate society, endeavoring to adopt such language and 
such measures as Christians could not reasonably' object to, 
those who had been loudest in their opposition and most 
offended with what they termed the unchristian spirit of the 
Abolitionists, kept aloof as well from the American and 
Foreign Anti-Slavery Society as they did from the Ameri- 
can Society, of which Mr. Garrison was the head." 

Ill another place he says : — 

" At this time (1851), and previously, most of the minis- 
ters kept awa}' from the anti-slavery platform, espceially in 
the large cities. lie b}- whom actions are weighed witnessed 
throughout the anti-slavery contest the enormous mistakes 
and even guilt of ministers of the Gospel, elders and dea- 
cons of churches, officers of ecclesiastical bodies, editors of 
religious newspapers and leading laymen in the churches 
and on committees of benevolent and religious societies, put- 
tiiiGT tliemselves in the scales with slaveliolders to wei2;h 
down the poor slaves and their advocates." 

Mr. Tappan, let it not be forgotten, Avas the man 
who led ill the secession, dividing the anti -slavery host 
for the purpose of securing the co-operation of men, 
who, as it was afterwards proved, had not a drop of 
anti-slavery blood in their obdurate hearts, being "like 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 295 

the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear ; which will not 
hearken to the voice of the charmer, charmiiifr never 
so wisely." So much for concession and compromise 
as a means of reform — for " enticing words of man's 
wisdom" as a means of turning the hearts of apologists 
for sin, whose teeth needed rather to be broken by the 
"tire and hammer of Divine truth." (See Psalm Iviii : 
G.) The new society failed to gain the support of 
this class of men because, although it had turned its 
back upon Garrison, it still denounced slavery as a sin 
and urged immediate emancipation as a duty. It was 
Mr. Garrison's anti-slavery principles after all, and 
not his "hard language," that repelled these men; 
hence they would no more follow Mr. Tappan's lead 
than his. And this shows what a mistake it was to 
divide the anti-slavery body in response to the heart- 
less clamor of such men, merely because women 
were admitted to membership ! The good the new 
society did — and I do not deny that it did much — 
w^as but a poor compensation for the evils produced 
by the division. The seceders were never so strong 
afterwards as they were at the instant of their depart- 
ure ; they sent no agents into the field, and con- 
tributed little to increase the agitation of the slavery 
question. They held an anniversary, usually not half 
as well attended as that of the old society ; they 
issued some excellent pamphlets from the pen of JudgQ 
Jay ; and they are said to have founded "The National 
Era" in Washin2:ton. None of these thinofs do I dis- 
13arage ; I only say that if the seceders had stood 
lirmly by the old organization, and the united body 
had continued to "move upon the enemy's works" 
with steady and unflinching step, far more might have 
been accomplished than was possible to be done by a 
divided host. The reasons for the division, I think, 
w^ere not such as should have had influence with men 
who loved -the anti-slavery cause more than they did 



296 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

their sects. The new Society, after a feeble existence 
of thirteen years, expired for want of moral vitality. 
Many of its members tnmsferred their interest to the 
American Missionary Association — a body of great 
moral value as a protest against the pro-slavery course 
of the American Board, and which has done and is 
still doing a noble work among the emancipated 
slaves. Others became absorbed in political meas- 
ures, and lost their appreciation of purely moral in- 
strumentalities. During the seven years immediately 
preceding the war, when, if ever, there was the utmost 
need of the highest moral influences in the warfare 
with slavery, the seceders from the old society were 
not in the field in any organized capacity^ They had 
fallen from their elevation as preachers of righteous- 
ness to the level of political action, directed merely 
against the further extension of slavery. 

The secession, it must be confessed, left the old 
society in a very crippled condition. It was strong 
only in its principles and in the unswerving loyalty and 
faith of its members. It had no depository, no news- 
paper, no funds. The secession had carried away 
nearly all the Abolitionists of New York and vicinity, 
so that it was hard to find there a sufiicient number of 
persons qualified to constitute an Executive Committee. 
But the Garrisonians were determined not to yield 
their foothold in New York. They re-organized the 
Executive Committee with such men as James S. Gib- 
bons ("faithful among the faithless found"), the 
venerable Isaac T. Hopper, William P. Powell, and 
others. In the course of a few weeks the abstracted 
"Emancipator" was replaced by a large, handsome 
journal, the "National Anti-Slavery Standard," started 
without a subscriber, and without so much as a dollar 
in the treasury. It Avas the story of "The Lil)erator" 
over again, save that the new paper was without a 
permanent editor, and was compelled for a time, like 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 297 

a Yankee schoolma'am, to "board round." It was 
conducted during the summer by James S. Gil)bons, 
James C. Jackson, and AVilliam M. Chacc — on just 
what plan of co-operation I do not remember. I only 
know that it Avas a very able and interesting sheet, 
and that it mightily pleased those on whose patronage 
it depended for support. Its prompt appearance, after 
what Mr. Garrison not inaptly described as " the 
scuttling of the old ship," greatly cheered the friends 
of the old society. An office was opened in Nassau 
Street above Beekman, and the venerable Quaker, 
Isaac T. Hopper, put in the place of office agent. 
The original design was to procure the services as 
permanent editor of Nathaniel P. Rogers, so soon as 
he should return from the London Anti-Slavery Con- 
ference, Avhither he had gone in company with Mr. 
Garrison at the close of the annual meeting. He had 
been for two years editor of the " Herald of Freedom," 
at Concord, N. H., and by his peculiar genius had 
made it very popular. He could not, however, be 
persuaded to leave New Hampshire, and the paper 
with which he had become so pleasantly identified, for 
a residence in New York ; but in the autumn it was 
arranged that he should write for the paper every 
week, and that I should take the place of local editor. 
This arrangement continued until May, 1841, when 
Mrs. L. Maria Child was persuaded to take the editor- 
ship. She occupied the position for two years, giving 
the paper a high character and securing for it a large 
circulation. She was succeeded by her husband, 
David Lee Child, who filled the place until the spring 
of 1844, wdien Sydney Howard Gay became local editor 
and agent, with Edmund Quincy and James Russell 
Lowell as contributing editors. Mr. Gay proved to 
be the right man for the place, and with the help of 
his associates made the paper a great power. He 

33 



298 GARRISOX AND HIS TIMES. 

remained at this post till 1858, doing excellent work, 
and commending himself to the confidence and atrection 
of his fellow-Abolitionists by his ability as a writer and 
his unswerving devotion to the cause. From 1853 till 
1858 I was associated with him, and when he retired 
to accept a position on "The Tribune," the local edi- 
torship devolved wholly upon me. I filled the place 
until 1865, when, agreeing with Mr. Garrison that 
slavery being abolished, there was no longer any need 
of anti-slavery societies or anti-slavery papers, I re- 
signed. Mr. Quincy retired at the same time and for 
the same reason. Mr. Lowell had dissolved his rela- 
tion with the paper many years before. It now 
passed, together with the American Anti-Slavery 
Society, under the management of Wendell Phillips 
and his friends, and Mr. Aaron jNI. Powell, shortly 
afterwards, became the editor. It was discontinued 
some years afterwards, at the same time that the 
society was dissolved. Thus, while "The Emanci- 
pator," a few years after its transfer, was reckoned 
among " things lost upon earth," the ^'National Anti- 
Slavery Standard," which, under the most discouraging 
circumstances, was established in its place as the 
organ of the original American Anti-Slavery Society, 
lived, together with that society, to record the death 
of American slavery and the enfranchisement of its 
victims. "New Organization" was certainly not a 
success. Making a formidable show in the beginning, 
it dwindled year by year, and died long betbro the 
abolition of slavery ; while "old organization," fear- 
fully crippled as it was by the secession, lost neither 
heart nor hope ; but, standing upon the original 
foundation, working on the old plan, and seeking the 
co-operation of all the friends of immediate emancipa- 
tion, without regard to sect, party or sex, remained in 
the field to the very end, fighting the enemy with con- 
stantly increasing energy and power, and at last 



Harrison and -his times. 299 

min2:lin2f its shouts of victory with those of four mil- 
lions of ransomed slaves. 

I have now told the story of the great division in 
the anti-slavery movement. I have told it frankly, as 
I understand it, and with such candor as is possible 
to one who was an earnest actor in the controversy, 
but who has no enmities to gratify, and no reproaches 
to visit upon anybody. I have dwelt upon the main 
features of the case, entering only into such details as 
were necessary to a clear understanding of the main 
event. I would gladly have avoided the subject, but 
it was impossible. I have always believed that many 
of those who took part in the secession regretted it 
afterwards, seeing the mistaken impressions upon 
wdiich they acted, in respect to Mr. Garrison on the 
one hand, and on the other in regard to those whose 
support of the cause they so much desired to secure. 
INlr. Garrison was deeply pained by the division, partly 
because he was himself, unjustly as he thought, made 
the occasion thereof, but more because it alienated 
fnmi him, for a time, not a few men to whom he was 
fondly attached, and in whom he had long had the 
highest confidence. He was especially pained that a 
cloud should fall between him and Arthur Tappan, to 
whom he was indebted for his release from the Balti- 
more jail, and whose character he greatly admired. 
He never believed that the division was inspired or 
nnich promoted by him. When Mr. Tappan died, in 
186(), Mr. Garrison, casting behind him all unpleasant 
memories, addressed a letter to one of his family, in 
which he spoke of "his Christian graces and virtues" 
as " making his character illustrious," and of his 
"proving his love for God by his love for man, with- 
out regard to country, race or clime ;" and then he 
added r "At all times ' ready to be offered' in the 
service of God, and the cause of suffering humanity, 
he was serene in the midst of fiery trials and imminent 



300 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

perils, being crucified to that ' fear of man that bring- 
eth a snare,' and having ' his life hid with Christ in 
God.' Now that the nation has decreed universal 
emancipation, I doubt not that he is cognizant of the 
glorious event, and, with the liberated millions ren- 
dering praise and thanksgiving to God." 

Three persons, alluded to in this chapter, are en- 
titled to further notice on account of important ser- 
vices rendered by them to the cause of the slave. 
Mr. John A. Collins came to us from Andover Theolo- 
gical Seminary at the time of the division in Massa- 
chusetts, taking the place of General Agent, left 
vacant by the retirement of the Rev. Amos A. Phelps. 
His executive power was remarkable. He did much 
to infuse courage into our broken ranks, to overcome 
opposition, to collect funds, and devise and execute 
large plans of anti-slavery labor. He travelled much 
at home, and once went to England on a mission in 
behalf of the cause. A man of tremendous energy, 
nothinir could staixnate in his presence. He could set 
a score of agents in the field, and plan and execute a 
campaign on the largest scale. At one time a series 
of one hundred conventions, extending over several 
States, East and AYest, w^as held by an organized 
corps of lecturers under his superintendence. He 
came to us in a critical hour and his services were 
exceedingly valuable. 

How shall I bring before the reader that rare man, 
Nathaniel P. Rogers, who was often compared to 
Charles Lamb, and who had a hold upon the aflfection 
of his fellow-Abolitionists such as few others were priv- 
ileged to acquire ? He espoused the cause at an early 
day, and articles from his pen, appearing from time to 
time in the anti-slavery papers, w^on attention by their 
raciness and striking originality of style as well as 
thoufirht. He was at this time a member of the bar in 
Grafton County, N. H., but cared more for literature 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 30 i 

than for his briefs. The " Herald of Freedom " was es- 
tablished in Concord by the New Hampshire Anti-SUi- 
very Society in 1835. Its first editor was Joseph Horace 
Kimball, who, in 1837, was sent, in company with 
James A. Thome, to observe and report the results of 
emancipation in the British West Indies. Not lon^- 
after his return from this expedition he died of con- 
sumption, when Mr. Kogers, by the spont^meous 
suffrages of the Abolitionists of New Hampshire, was 
selected to fill his place. He made the paper as bril- 
liant as it was able. His style was remarkable for 
terseness, for vivid flights of imagination, for odd and 
striking turns of thought, and for a wit all his own. 
The paper attained high popularity under his manage- 
ment, while personally he became a great favorite with 
all who had the privilege of his acquaintance. He was 
a man of exquisite taste and refinement, warm-hearted 
and hospitable, and therefore a most delightful host as 
well as guest. In the early diiys of the cause he was 
strictly Orthodox in opinion and feeling, but grew 
liberal, as many others did, as he observed how the 
clergy and the churches hardened their hearts against 
the cry of the slave. He attained at length to the 
honor of excommunication by a church that thought it 
worse to be an Abolitionist with a deficient creed than 
to be a slaveholder. Doi'ing the later ye.trs of his 
life he carried his ideas of individual freedom so far 
that he could not tolerate a presiding ofiicer in an 
anti-slavery meeting. This brought him into conflict 
with the New Hampshire Anti-Slavery Society, which 
had founded the "Herald of Freedom," and made him 
its editor. The publisher claimed that the title to the 
paper had in some way lapsed, and that it was no 
longer the property of the Society. The Society, 
however, or its Executive Committee, still claimed it. 
Mr. Garrison, Mr. Quincy and others were simimoned 
from Boston, as umpires in the dispute. They decided 



302 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

that the title remained with the Society. It was the 
universal Avish, however, that Mr. Rogers should con- 
tinue to edit it. His health was seriously impaired at 
the time, and such was his extreme nervous sensibility 
that he took offence at the decision, and refused to 
acquiesce in it. A most unfortunate controversy was 
the result, and he became alienated from Mr. Garrison, 
without cause or reasonable provocation, as the latter 
thought and many others believed. In this state of 
mind he died in 1846. His estrangement from his old 
friends, and especially from Mr. Garrison, was a 
subject of general lamentation. It never could have 
happened, I am sure, but for a morbid sensitiveness 
that was the result of ill-health. This, I know, was 
the opinion of many of his best friends, though not of 
all of them. Mr. Garrison loved him tenderly, and 
^v'ds never for an instant conscious that he had ^ono 
him wrong. Mr. Rogers remarked, at the time of the 
secession from the old Society, that "the quarrels of 
Abolitionists were better than other people's peace " ; 
but I am afraid this philosophy did not console him in 
this last extremity. But I am sure that he and Garrison 
and Quincy are friends now. Surviving Abolitionists 
everywhere will gladly forget any faults of his last 
days — the fruit, no doubt, of nervous prostration — 
and remember only his noble nature, his rare endow- 
ments, his ripe culture and his consecration to the 
cimse of the slave. It is greatly to be regretted that 
the Rev. John Pierpont, in his Introduction to " A 
Collection from the Newspaper Writings " of Mr. 
Rogers, allowed himself to make statements of a par- 
tisan and most preposterous character respecting the 
controversy between Mr. Rogers and his old friends, 
for which he was afterwards constrained to apologize, 
and wliich he prr^mised to correct in another edition — 
which, however, was never published. Aside from 
this most mistaken partisanship, the book is a worthy 
monument of Mr. Rogers's chai-acter and orenius. 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 303 

Abby Kelley (now Mrs. Stephen S. Foster) was the 
first woman, after the Grimke sisters, to enter the 
field as an anti-slavery lecturer. No one who ever 
knew her doubted that she felt herself called of God to 
the work, and she entered upon it in a spirit of self- 
consecration that inspired the deepest respect of all 
observers. She did not begin in any careless or ran- 
dom way, but studied her subject thoroughly. She no 
doubt expected to become a target for the pro-slavery 
press, but I am sure she did not anticipate the weight 
of odium that fell upon her on account of the brave 
btep she felt it her duty to take. There are newspa- 
pers that ought to be blushing to-day, and editors who 
should be clothed in sackcloth and ashes, for their 
shameful abuse of this noble woman. Her exalted 
worth did not exempt her from insinuations of the 
vilest sort. She was denounced and ridiculed by the 
pulpit as well as the press, and her meetings were 
sometimes assailed by mobs. She bore all this load 
of re[)roach uith nnmurmuring patience, keeping 
quietly on in her work, until at last she conquered her 
true place in the public esteem. She was a very popu- 
lar and successful lecturer, and labored much not only 
in New England, but in New York, Pennsylvania and 
the West. In Ohio, and particularly on the Western 
llcserve, she did a noble work. She may be said with 
truth to have founded " The Anti-Slavery Bugle," and 
I doubt if the Western Anti-Slavery Society, which, 
as an auxiliary of the National Society, did such noble 
work, especially in Eastern Ohio, would ever have 
been ori^anized but for her. James Kussell Lowell 
describes her in these lines : — 

" A Judith tbere, turned Quakeress, 
Sits Abby, iu her modest dress. 
• ••••• 

No nobler gift of heart or brain, 
No life more white from spot or stain, 
Was e'er on Freedom's alfar laid 
Thau hers — the simple Quaker maid." 



304 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

It was Mrs. Foster's misfortune to be often con- 
founded by the press (sometimes mischievously) with 
AbijTfuil Folsom, an innocent monomaniac on the sul)- 
ject of free speech, who used to torment the anti-shivery 
meetings with grotesque interruptions, and who was 
not unirequently removed by gentle force. The mob- 
ocratic fringe that so often hung around the doors at 
anti-slavery gatherings always cheered this woman 
vociferously whenever she arose to speak. She ac- 
cepted such cheers as "the voice of the people," and 
sometimes annoyed us excessively by her insane talk, 
which, however, was frequently spiced with the keenest 
wit. Once I assisted in carrying her gently out of the 
Marlboro' Chapel, She made it a point of conscience 
not to resist. She was placed in a chair, and as Wen- 
dell Phillips, William A. White and myself were 
carrying her down the aisle, through a crowd, she 
exclaimed, " I'm better off than my Master was; He 
had but one ass to ride — I have three to carry me." 
Mrs. Folsom was perfectly rational on every subject 
except that of free speech. She was a woman of rare 
benevolence, and Theodore Parker and others often 
made her their almoner. 



I 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 305 



XVITI. 

Formation of the Liberty Party — Complicated with " New Organ- 
ization " — Mr. Garrison's Opposition, and the Reasons thereof — 
Samuel E. Sewall and John G. Whittier — Parties Limited by 
the Constitution — In Danger of Degenerating — Slavery Abol- 
ished by Southern Madness rather than by Northern Principle — 
Moral Agitation of Paramount Importance — Testimony of 
Frederick Douglass. 

While the divisions of which I have given an 
account in previous chapters had their origin mainly in 
sectarian fears and jealousies, and in the delusion that 
large numbers of Orthodox ministers and la^^men stood 
ready to espouse the cause if they could only do so with- 
out endorsing or following the lead of Mr. Garrison, 
they were yet complicated, to a large extent, with the 
organization of the Liberty political party. It is prob^ 
ably true that the first man to suggest such a party, 
and to take steps toward its formation, was the late 
Hon. Myron liolley, of Rochester, N. Y., who was, I 
suspect, as profoundly indifferent as any man could 
well have been to the complaints of Orthodox Aboli- 
tionists in respect to Mr. Garrison. Many of the 
Kew Organizationists, however, seized upon that move- 
ment, and used it as a makeweight to effect their ends. 
The organization of the Liberty party, if it had stood 
simply upon its own merits, might and probabl}^ would 
have left the anti-slavery societies intact, to pursue the 
work for which they were formed. It might have 
weakened, but could hardly have destroyed them. 
Mr. Garrison and others would have opposed the 
measure strenuously, but not in such a way as to give 

30 



306 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

its friends any provocation for witlid rawing themselves 
from the work of moral agitation. For Mr. Garrison, 
though himself a Non-resistant, and therefore pre- 
cluded from taking any part in the management of 
political parties, still looked to political action as an 
important means of advancing the anti-slavery cause. 
The anti-slavery movement, first in the order of time, 
was before all others in his regard. It could not wait 
for the people to be converted to his principles of 
peace, but must go on in the use of those instrumen- 
talities whose rightfulness the people did not question. 
Outside of anti-slavery meetings he would do what he 
could for the spread of his Peace principles ; but on , 
the anti-slavery platform he had neither the right nor \ 
the wish to introduce that subject. No Abolitionist 
rejoiced more heartily than himself in observing the 
growth of anti-slavery sentiment in the political par- 
ties, and in witnessing the agitation of the subject in 
Congress and the State Legislatures. He knew that all 
this was the natural, as it certainly was the anticipated 
result of the moral agitation created by anti-slavery 
societies, newspapers, tracts, lectures, conventions, 
etc. ; and therefore he desired to multiply these agen- 
cies a hundred-fold, in order to induce the nation, at 
the earliest possible day, to do all that could be done 
by political action for the overthrow of slavery. No 
man appreciated more highly than he did the noble 
service in the cause of freedom rendered by the earliest 
agitators of the question in Congress — such men as 
John Quincy Adams, William Slade, Seth M. Gates 
and Joshua R. Giddings. He saw in their action the 
fruit of his own labors, and a sure augury of the suc- 
cess of the movement which he had planted. The 
kind concern manifested l)y a certain class of persons 
as to his consistency in all this he duly appreciated, 
but thought himself fully capable of taking care of his 
own reputation in this respect. He was no Eomau 



^ ' GARRISON AST> HIS TIMES. 307 

Catholic, any more than he was a politician, and could 
not in conscience have become a member of the 
Catholic Church ; but if that ancient and powerful 
denomination had lent itself to the work of abolishing 
American slavery, he would have rejoiced with joy 
unspeakable. No reproaches of the Pope would have 
fallen from his lips on the anti-slavery platform. lie 
was indeed a member of no religious sect, nor would 
he have joined any one of all the churches around him ; 
but not the less on this account would ho have been 
glad to see any one of them take a position of active 
hostility to slavery. It was indeed his constant efibrt 
and desire to induce them all to do this. His relation 
to the political parties was exactly similar to his rela- 
tion to the churches, and he felt no more scruple in 
urging the one than the other to take an anti-slavery 
course. 

Mr. Garrison's opposition to the formation of the 
Liberty party was often attributed to his non-resistance 
sentiments. But this was a great mistake. Thousands 
of the most earnest Abolitionists in the land, Vvdio had 
no sympathy with his non-resistance views, were as 
warmly opposed to it as he was. Such an organization 
was indeed in direct contravention to numerous 
avow^als, official as well as private, of the Abolitionists. 
"We have opened," said the American Anti-Slavery 
Society in its third annual report, "and shall open, no 
road to political preferment. The strength of our 
cause must be in the humble, fervent prayer of the 
righteous man, which availcth much, and the blessing 
of that God who had chosen the Aveak things of the 
world to confound the mighty." A year later it said, 
"It is to ])e expected that some political wolves will 
put on the clothing of abolitionism, and seek to 
elevate themselves and manage the anti-slavery organ- 
ization, to secure their own purposes. But they ought 
to be met on the threshold, and stripped of their dis- 



308 GARRISON ANt> HIS TIMES. 

guise. The best safeguard against their entrance is for 
the Abolitionists, while they iirnily refuse to vote for 
a man who will not support abolition measures, to 
avoid setting up candidates of their own.'^ Later still 
the society said, ^^Abolitionists haVe resolved from the 
first to act upon slavery politically, not by organizing 
a new political party, but by making it the interest of 
the parties already existing to act upon abolition prin- 
ciples." "Abolitionists," said the "Quarterly Anti- 
Slavery Magazine" for January, 1837, "have but one 
work — it is not to put anybody into office or out of it, 
but to set right those who make officers." "The exhi- 
bition of truth in Christian fiiithf u hie ss," said the Hon, 
Wm. Jay, "appears to me to be the great instrument 
by which we are to operate. Should political anti- 
slavery ever be substituted for religious anti-slavery, 
the consequences would probably be disastrous." 

Mr. Garrison thought, in the first place, that it was 
wholly unnecessary for Abolitionists to organize a 
political party, since one or both the existing parties 
would be compelled to espouse the cause so soon as 
public opinion should call for anti-slavery action. 
Their true course, he thought, was to persevere in the 
work of moral agitation, enlightening the people as to 
the character of slavery and their duties concerning it, 
quickening their consciences, and seeking to form a 
public sentiment that would impel the National and 
State Governments to exercise all their constitutional 
powers in opposition to slavery. The results then 
already accomplished were a demonstration of the 
efficacy of this method. 

In the next place, he thought a political party the 
most expensive, wasteful, and least efficacious of all 
instrumentalities for moral a!2:itation and the enliirhten- 
ment of the people. 

In assuming, as a body, a partisan attitude, and 
nominating each other for office, Abolitionists would 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 309 

close the ears of multitudes to their appeals, and 
expose themselves to strong temptations to lower their 
standard for the sake of political success. The purity 
of the movement would thus be sullied by the ambi- 
tion for office, its moral tone depressed, and the day 
of its final triumph deferred. As a moral and relig- 
ous movement, its disinterestedness was acknowledged 
and respected even by its enemies ; as a political 
organization, it would be distrusted not only by its 
avowed opponents, but by many of those friendly to 
its object. The machinery of politics, he thought, 
w^as far more costly than that of moral and religious 
movements, and far more liable to abuse. The men 
ens^aged in working that machinery would be liable to 
undervalue and neglect moral instrumentalities, and 
thus the movement would be liable to degenerate into 
a mere scramble for power and place. 

Moreover, he insisted that a political anti-slavery 
party would be subject to the limitations and hampered 
by the compromises of the Constitution. It could not 
represent the cause in all its length and breadth, its 
height and depth. It could only propose to itself such 
measures as the Constitution sanctioned, and these 
would fall far short of fulfilling all the purposes of the 
anti-slavery movement. When the National Govern- 
ment had exhausted its whole powder in relation to 
slavery, the system itself would remain intact. Hence 
the moral movement should be kept in vigorous opera- 
tion, and its power augmented by every rightful 
means. In doing this the Abolitionists would be taking 
the course most likely to secure every political object 
which they had in view, and that at the earliest possi- 
ble day. Politicians would be quick to discover when 
public opinion demanded anti-slavery action by the 
Government, and glad enough to avail themselves of 
a popular issue ; while as a means of forming such a 
public sentiment a political party was the poorest of 



310 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

instrumentalities. Meanwhile anti-slavery voters, with- 
out nominating candidates of their own, should exer- 
cise their right of suffrage in conformity with their 
principles. The Abolitionists of Great Britain had 
pursued this course with great success. 

On this subject Mr. Garrison remained of the same 
opinion to his dying day. lie always believed that 
the cause would have triumphed sooner, in a political 
sense, if the Abolitionists had continued to act as one 
body, never yielding to the temptation of forming a 
political party, but pressing forward in the use of the 
same instrumentalities which were so potent from 1831 
to 1840. He was confirmed in this opinion by watch- 
ing the course of the Liberty party, wliich receded in 
part from its original anti-slavery principles to sup- 
port that political trickster, Martin Van Buren, and 
again in suffering itself to be absorbed by the Eepub- 
lican party upon the single issue of the non-extension 
of slavery to new territory. He thought there was no 
necessity for Abolitionists to take a downw\ard course 
to reach that point. If they had remained firm in 
demanding of the government all that it had power to 
do for the overthrow of slavery, the political parties 
would all the sooner have come up to the ground of 
non-extension. In other words, if the money ex- 
pended in organizing and running a political party had 
been employed in the work of moral agitation and in 
the fearless and impartial application of anti-slavery 
principles to sects and parties, vastly more would have 
been accomplished, and political action against slavery 
the sooner secured. 

In saying this let me not be understood to question 
the motives of those who originated the Liberty party, 
or to speak in a controversial spirit upon the subject. 
My sole object is to make clear to my readers the 
position held by Mr. Garrison and his associates. 
Whether that position was justified or not by the. facts 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 311 

in the case, every reader must judge for himself. Xor 
let it be for a moment supposed that I undervalue the 
results of political action, or would detract from the 
praise due to the noble men who fought the Slave 
Power by this means. On the contrary, my heart 
swells with gratitude when I think of the courage and 
devotion of Slade and Giddings, Gates and Halc^ Wil- 
son and Sumner, Morris and Chase, and scores of 
others, who exhausted all the powers of the Constitu- 
tion in their eflbrts to resist the encroachments of 
slavery; and, above all, when I think of Abraham 
Lincohi, patient, conscientious, firm, waiting for the 
hour when, as Commander-in-Chief of the JMilitary 
and Naval forces of the United States, he could right- 
fully strike ofi" the fetters of the slaves, and then, by 
a single stroke of his pen, lifting four millions of 
human beings from the condition of chattels to that of 
men, and delivering the Republic forever from the 
guilt and shame of slavery. Still, I cannot forget 
that it was the madness of the Slave Power alone that 
opened the way to this glorious consummation. I 
cannot forget that the political party which went into 
power in 1861, and which had absorbed into itself the 
anti-slavery voters of the country, contemplated noth- 
ing more than keeping slavery within its then present 
limits, and that Abraham Lincoln, during the first 
month of his administration, diligently enforced the 
infamous Fugitive Slave law, in order to convince the 
slaveholders that neither he nor his party contemplated 
any infraction of their constitutional rights, and that 
they could remain in the Union with the perfect assur- 
ance that their diabolical system would be preserved 
from harm. I cannot fors^et that the i2:reat mass of the 
Northern people, including the ministers and churches 
of nearly every denomination, were not only willing, 
but anxious to have the South remain in the Union, 
Vv'ith all their slaves, and ready to fulfil, for the protec- . 



312 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

tion of slavery, all the obligations imposed hy the 
Constitution. And if the South had listened to the 
persuasions of the North, in all probability slavery, 
with all its indescribable atrocities, would be existino* 
to-da}', and the Northern ministry and church, perhaps, 
as indifierent as ever to the wrongs and woes of its 
victims. The Northern people should not take too 
much credit to themselves for an event which was 
made possible and necessary, not b}' any virtue of their 
own, but 1)y a madness which they earncstlj^ depre- 
cated, and which, by the profiered renewal of unholy 
compromises, they sought to subdue. God, who look- 
eth on the heart, is not mocked. He holds men re- 
sponsible not alone for iniquity consummated, but for 
that which they were willing to do if opportunity had 
not failed. 

Some of the best friends of Mr. Garrison — men 
who had no part or sympathy in the efforts to oust 
him from his rightful place in deference to sectarian 
prejudices — were in favor of the Liberty party. It 
will be enough to mention among these the names of 
Samuel E. Sewall and John G. Whittier, for whose 
conscientious convictions Mr. Garrison cherished the 
utmost respect. But he could not avoid seeing that a 
very large proportion of the leaders and members of 
that party were men who had taken an active part in 
dividing the anti-slavery host on sectarian grounds, 
and whose minds and hearts were full of enmity to 
the old organization. It was to him a very instructive 
spectacle to observe a score or two of clergymen 
aroused all at once to a pitch of high enthusiasm for 
political purity, and willing at the same time to wink 
at the impurity of the church ; too conscientious to 
vote at the polls for a slaveholder or a pro-slavery man, 
but quite willing to remain connected with religious 
denominations that were in open complicity with 
slavery and wholly indifferent to the wrongs of the 



GARRISON AND HIS TOIES. 313 

slaves. These preachers, who turned their backs upon 
the anti-slavery movement as originally organized, had 
come to the conchision that it was time for iudsfment 
to begin, not at the house of God, but in the political 
parties ! It did not matter so much that slaveholders had 
access to the Northern pulpits and communion-tables, 
as it did that they had places of honor in the political 
parties, and held office under the government. These 
men had labored for 3'ears to elevate the standard of 
moralitv in the churches, and had found the task so 
hard of accomplishment, and entailing such unpleasant 
consequences upon themselves, that now they resolved 
to turn their attention to the political field, and give 
the churches a rest. Perhaps in this way they might 
recover their ecclesiastical standing, while keeping up 
the pretence of being just as much opposed to slavery 
as ever ; and then perhaps the clergy and the churches, 
after being let alone for a time, and no longer angered 
by anti-slavery rebukes, or worried by Garrison's 
" infidelity," would be able, without any expense to 
their pride, to work their way round to some sort of 
anti-slavery position. All this was just as plain as if 
written out in so many words, and emblazoned on the 
sky, for all men to read. Mr. Garrison and his friends 
must have been blind not to see it, and unfaithful to 
the slave not to expose and denounce it. 

Moreover, this new political zeal sought to justify 
itself by arguments which Mr. Garrison regarded as a 
disparagement of the moral agitation against slavery, 
and well calculated to bring it into contempt. Slavery, 
it w^as said, was the creature of law, and could only 
be abolished by statute ; therefore, the great duty of 
every Abolitionist was to cast an auti-slavery vote. 
The ballot-box was the cure-all, the end-all of the whole 
matter. Of what use was it to talk against slavery? 
To vote against it was " the end of the law for right- 
eousness." Who ever knew any good thing to be ac- 

40 



314 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

complished by talk alone? Now, in the first place, it 
was not true that slavery was the creature of law ; on 
the contrary, the slave laws, in letter as well as spirit, 
w^cre the creatures of slavery, born of the public 
sentiment which that vile sj^stem had first created ; 
and the first thing to be done, therefore, was to form 
ii public sentiment amid which slavery itself could not 
live. The mere act of changing the laws, after that, 
would be the easiest of all possible tasks ; it would 
follow as a matter of course. The one thing to be 
done, therefore, Mr. Garrison insisted, was to change 
public sentiment; and for this moral agitation, in 
other words, "the opposition of moral purity to 
moral corruption, the destruction of error by the 
potency of truth, the overthrow of prejudice by the 
power of love," Avas the chief instrumentality. The 
best weapons of the anti-slavery warfare were "spirit- 
ual, and mighty through God to the pulling down of 
strongholds." With the example of Jesus, the prophets 
and the apostles before them, not one of whom ever 
cast a balh)t, it was not becoming in men to sneer at 
"the foolishness of preaching," or to doubt the wis- 
dom of proclaiming the truth in the ears of a sinful 
nation. 

Such were the views of Mr. Garrison. Whether they 
were wise or foolish posterity will judge. He and his 
friends believed with all their hearts that they were 
sound, and they acted upon them with an energy, a 
fidelity that overcame all obstacles, and that yielded 
neither to obloquy nor persecution. Frederick Doug- 
lass, after the organization of the Free Soil party, with 
the instinct of one who had worn the fetters of a slave, 
set the subject in a clear light. "We declare," he said, 
"that the Free Soil movement ought not to be con- 
sidered as the real anti-slavery movement of the coun- 
try, and our further belief, that so far from regarding 
our movement in the light of a political one, we should 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 315 

strive by every means in onr power to keep it mainly 
a moral movement. The facts, arguments and princi- 
ples with which the Free Soilers so powerfully assail the 
ramparts of slavery have been drawn chiefly from the 
repositories prepared to their hands. The ground has 
been deeply ploughed for them, and they find it com- 
paratively meHow, requiring little eifort to cultivate 
it. The part}^ came into operation, not by its own 
impulse, but by invitation, and a state of preparation 
which made it easy to operate. Pride and self-glory 
may conceal it, but time will reveal that to the earnest, 
unwearying, and faithful toil of William Lloyd Garrison 
and the American Anti-Slaver}^ Society with its auxi- 
liaries, we are indebted for the Free Soil movement." 
The Liberty party set itself up in business upon 
capital created for it by ten years of moral agitation, 
and the anti-slavery parties that followed profited by 
the same and other similar accumulations of moral 
power, the fruit of the agitation which some of them 
affected to despise. Mr. Garrison himself did not 
hesitate to claim for the movement with which he was 
identified the credit which so many others have given 
it. "If," he said, "the Garrisonian Abolitionists had 
been supplanted or driven from the field, what would 
have become of the anti-slavery movement? Assur- 
edly, a collapse would have folhjwed more disastrous 
than that wdiich followed the Missouri struggle in 1820, 
and neither a Giddings nor a Sumner, neither a Wil- 
son nor a Julian would have been seen as a political 
representative of the movement in Congress." Possi- 
bly there may be some to whom this will read like an 
idle boast, but those who know how to trace important 
public events to their oriijinal causes, and to wei2:h the 
influences — not always those which first challenge 
attention — that shape the character and mould the 
destiny of nations, will not doubt its truth. 



316 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES, 



XIX. 

Explanatory and Apologetic — The Moral Agitation, its Instru- 
ments, Agents and Resources — Bad Effects of the Secession — 
The Garrisoniaus ** Hold the Fort "— The Movement Still For- 
midable — Pennsylvania — The Western Society — Anti-Slavery 
Papers — Annexation of Texas — Theodore Parker — The Lectur- 
ing Agents — Rev. Samuel May — Stephen S. Foster — Parker 
Pilisbury. 

I HAVE now completed my sketches of the anti- 
slavery movement up to and includhig the divisions of 
1839-40, treating the subject with only such a degree 
of fullness as it seemed absolutely to require. I must 
remiud my readers that I have not undertaken to 
write a complete history, but ouly to present an out- 
line of the principal events embraced in this period. 
Many interesting occurrences have either not been 
mentioned at all, or referred to only in the briefest 
terms. I trust I have not wholly failed in my design 
to give a true account of the origin and early growth 
of one of the grandest moral and philanthropic move- 
ments that the world has ever witnessed. It was my 
cherished hope for many years that one far more com- 
petent than myself would perform this task ; and I 
consented to undertake it at last only because no one 
else appeared, or seemed likely to appear, on the field. 

I believe I have not erred in thinkins: that it was 
above all things important to take such a proportion 
of the space at my command as might be required to 
describe the origin and foundation of the anti-slavery 
movement, to show what mighty efibrts were made to 
crush it in its earliest years, and to depict the persecu- 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 317 

tions endured by its first advocates. Tho remainder 
of the history, though crowded with events of thrill- 
ing interest, will yet, in view of the strong light cast 
upon it from the foundation period already described, 
bear to be treated with the brevity made imperative by 
the limits of this volume. The orii^^in of the move- 
ment, the fundamental principles upon which it rested, 
the methods by which its ends were sought, and the 
resistance it met with, having been already made clear, 
there is the less need of a close attention to details in 
what remains to be written. And yet I will frankly 
confess my regret, for the reader's sake, that I cannot 
now avail myself fully of the rich materials gleaned 
from a survey of the later period of the history. The 
broadest outline is all that I can attempt. 

I must also ask my readers to remember that I have 
not undertaken to write a history, however brief, of 
cither of the three political parties which, at diiferent 
periods before emancipation, represented in a certain 
sense the anti-slavery sentiment of the country, or of 
the discussions in Congress that preceded and fol- 
lowed the Eebellion. And this not because I do not 
appreciate the immense importance of ihU brmch of 
the subject, but because it has alivjtly bocu treated 
with more or less fulness by William Goodell in his 
" Slavery and Anti-Slavery" ( 1855 ) , by Horace Greeley 
in his "Gr6at American Conflict," and by Vice-Presi- 
dent Wilson in his "History of the Rise and Fall of 
the Slave Power." It is my ambition to do a work 
which they neglected, but w^iich is certainly not less 
important than that which they so well performed. 
The portion of anti-slavery history which received 
their attention is in no danger of being thrown into 
tho shade, nor is the world likely to overlook its 
indebtedness to the heroes who fou2:ht on that con- 
spicuous stage. But the fresh mountain-springs of 
moral influence, by which the life of the anti-slavery 



318 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

political parties was constantly renewed and their 
blood kci)t from degenerating, have not been appreci- 
ated as tiiey deserve. Men indeed who live in the 
excitement and turmoil of political life are often ut- 
terly oblivious of the moral influences which, having no 
organic connection with the machinery of parties, are 
3^et its chief propelling force. So true is this that mul- 
titudes of otherwise well-informed people conceive of 
the anti-slavery movement in this country as having 
begun either Avith the formation of the Liberty party 
or^vith the Fremont campaign, and as having been 
carried forward almost entirely by political instrumen- 
talities. For this reason it has seemed to me impor- 
tant, for the instruction of the present and coming 
generations, to bring out into full view the self-sacri- 
Hcing labors of men who neither sought office for 
themselves or others, who worked no political wires 
and entered no caucuses, but devoted themselves 
steadily and persistently, year after year for three 
decades, to the work of enlightening the people as to 
the character of slavery, the wrongs and woes of the 
slaves, the duty and safety of immediate emancipation, 
and the terrible guilt of those who, whether in church 
or state, lent themselves to the support of so atro- 
cious a system. But for the public sentiment origi- 
nally created by this means, no anti-slavery political 
party could ever have been formed ; nor could such a 
])arty have succeeded in its struggle with the Slave 
Power, if that public sentiment had not been con- 
stantly fed and sustained by moral agitation, outside 
and independent of itself. There was more than one 
crisis in the history of parties, when the political agita- 
tion, but for the moral influences that lay behind it, 
and that were beyond the reach of politicians, would 
in all probability have been overcome. Such men as 
Giddings and Slade and Sumner and Wilson were per- 
fectly aware of this, and often confessed it in private 



GAKllISON AM) i::S TIMES. 319 

if not ill public. Hundreds of Republicans know 
it, and gladly contributed of their means to sustain 
the anti-slavery societies in their work. Some of 
them Avere even glad to take part occasionally in the 
moral agitation, by means of which the veins of their 
party were constantly infused with fresh blood. 

I do not belittle the evil effects of the secession 
when I say that, in spite of that untoward and ever to 
be lamented event, the anti-slavery societies and other 
agencies controlled by the Garrisonians were still 
powerful enough to alarm the slaveholders for the 
safety of their cherished institution, and to keep the 
pro-slavery party at the North in a constant fever of 
excitement. The American Society was indeed left at 
first in a condition like that of a ship dismantled in a 
hurricane. The seceding directors of that society were 
men of great influence, and when they set up a new 
oro:anization, the abolition forces in some quarters were 
thrown into a state of bewilderment, which was like a 
paralysis in its sudden effects. Some of the State socie- 
ties, and numbers of smaller ones, never recovered from 
that condition. They did nothing either for the old or 
the new organization, adopting the policy of keeping 
out of a controversy, of which they were not prepared 
to take either side. At the time of the secession there 
were in the country nearly or quite two thousand anti- 
slavery societies, representing avast body of public 
sentiment in opposition to slavery ; and if the National 
Society had not been divided, there is every reason to 
believe that the cause would have made very rapid 
progress in the next two or three years. As it was, 
the anti-slavery army, which had stood in serried ranks 
before the enemy, prepared to give battle at every 
point, was thrown into sudden confusion, one division 
strairgling in this direction, another in that, and al- 
together presenting the appearance of a rout rather 
than of an impending battle. What shouts of exulta- 



320 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

tion went up from the enemy's camp ! The pro-slavery 
party on every hand assumed that the Abolitionists 
had at last done for their own movement what mobs, 
the denunciations of the press, and ecclesiastical and 
social proscription had utterly failed to do, viz : — put 
IT DOWN, beyond the hope of resuscitation. " We 
shall not," said the New York " Journal of Commerce," 
one of the most virulent of pro-slavery papers, " have 
occasion to write the word * abolition' many times 
more." But these exultations were premature. It 
was an over-intensity of life rather than a diminution 
of vital force that divided our ranks. Althou^'h the 
different divisions of the anti-slavery army no longer 
obeyed the voice of any single leader, every one of 
them was full of fight, and confident of its power to 
win a victory in every contest. The division was 
more external than internal. The abolition of slavery, 
by one means or another, was the animating purpose 
of all. The power of the movement, though impaired 
for lack of unity, was not destroyed. It still had its 
" quarrel just," and therefore was more than a match 
for enemies "whose consciences with injustice were 
corrupt." 

The position of Mr. Garrison and his friends in this 
crisis was not doubtful. They were still at the head 
of the moral movement. It was theirs to "hold the 
fort ; " to stand firmly on the ground marked out by 
the Declaration of 1833 ; to apply anti-slavery prin- 
ciples impartially to every party and sect, and to 
every institution and society in the land that stood 
in the way of the slave's redemption ; to send forth 
anti-slavery lecturers as extensively as they were 
able ; to distribute anti-slavery papers, pamplilets 
and tracts in every accessible quarter ; to prepare 
and circulate petitions to Congress and the State 
Legislatures ; to hold anniversaries and conventions ; 
in short to carry on the work of moral agitation, by 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 321 

every legitimate means, enlightening the people ns to 
the character of slavery and their duties, political as 
•well as moral, social and ecclesiastical, concerning it; 
thus hastenins: the formation of a ruBLic sentiment, 
in whose atmosphere slavery could not live. If others 
had either wholly or partially forsaken this work for 
less onerous or more agreeable tasks, then their duty 
was all the more imperative. Nor were they in the 
least discouraged by anything that had happened. 
Their si)irit and purpose are indicated by the words 
of Mr. Garrison on another occasion. " Our cause," 
said he, "is of God. It has been so from the begin- 
ning. Why did this nation tremble at the outset? 
Why were the slaveholders smitten as with the fear 
of death ? Who were the Abolitionists ? Confessedly, 
in a numerical sense, not to be counted. They had 
no influence, no station, no wealth. Ah, but they had 
the truth of God, and therefore God himself was on 
their side ; and hence the guilty nation quaked with 
fear when that truth was uttered and applied. We 
have fought a good fight, and we yet shall conquer, 
God helping us. All the spirits of the just are with 
us ; all the good of earth are with us ; and we need 
not fear as to the result of the conflict." It was 
this invincible trust in God, under all circumstances, 
that drew to Mr. Garrison's side the men and women 
who were best fitted to carry on a moral warfare. 
The attempt of a recreant church and a time-serving 
pulpit to fasten upon him the opprobrious name of 
infidel did not disturb their equanimity. They knew 
that they were enlisted in a pre-eminently Christian 
work, and that if Jesus himself should appear again 
on the earth, it would be to give them his blessing and 
lead them to victory. If they were called fanatics 
and infidels, so had Jesus been called a blasphemer, 
while his apostles were denounced as " movers of sedi- 
tion." It was not for them to complain that they were 

41 



322 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

treated as other reformers had been in all ages of the 
■world. To be ealled infidels by a church that stopped 
its ears to the cry of the poor, while paying tithes of 
mint, aniiis and cummin, and forgetting the weighty 
matters of the law, was only a compliment to their 
Christian fidelity, for which they should feel not shamo 
but pride. 

So far as the National Society was concerned, it was 
a new departure, though not by any means a change 
of position. The management, for greater efficiency, 
was transferred from New "York to Boston, but the 
society was still represented at the old headquarters 
by the "National Anti-Slavery Standard," no expense 
being spared to make it a worthy expositor of the 
cause. Tho pecuniary resources of the society wcro 
seriously diminished by the secession, and the diver- 
sion of so many Abolitionists from the moral to the 
political field. The Massachusetts society remained 
true to its former allegiance, the great body of tho 
Abolitionists in that State rallying around Mr. 
Garrison with renewed confidence and afiection. 
They knew, as many good friends of the cause in 
other States did not, how utterly false were the accu- 
sations brought against their leader by busy and not 
over-scrupulous sectarians. Tho New Hampshire 
society also stood firmly by the old organization, and 
so also did the Pennsylvania society, embracing in its 
meml)ership a large body of most intelligent and clear- 
sighted friends of the cause, among whom were noble 
women not a few. The Quaker atmosphere was not 
anywhere congenial to the new organization, being but 
sli'^ditlv if at all infused with the sectarian spirit that 
led to the secession. The Liberty party, however, 
was not without a few zealous friends among the 
Quakers, the influence of John G. Whittier in this 
direction being powerfully felt. But a large majority 
of the Abolitionists in Pennsylvania remained in 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 323 

hearty sympathy Avith the old organization. The 
Secretary and General Agent of the State Society was 
that "prudent rash man/' James Miller McKim, who 
combined an earnest zeal with great wisdom in admin- 
istration. Fitted by his intellectual gifts as well as 
by education for any place of influence and power to 
which he might have chosen to aspire, he devoted him- 
self unreservedly for a generation to the cause of the 
slave, rendering it service of the very highest char- 
acter by his pen and his voice, as well as by his 
wisdom in counsel. The Pennsylvania Society was 
for years under the management, to a large extent, of 
women. Lucretia Mott, Mary Grew, Sarah Pugh and 
Abby Kimber were for many years valued members of 
the Executive Committee, furnishing in their own per- 
sons an illustration of the wisdom of the Divine 
arrangement in fitting women for equal co-operation 
with men in all the important concerns of life. 
Whatever the anti-slavery societies may have lost by 
the secession, which had its cause in the admission of 
w^omen to full membership, they gained vastly more 
by the acquisition of many such women as those above 
named, who remained true to the cause in every 
emergency. Mrs. Mott and Miss Grew took high 
rank as speakers, in which capacity they were great 
favorites in the anti-slavery meetings. Miss Grew 
also rendered the cause valuable service with her pen, 
not only in the annual reports of the Philadelphia 
Female Anti-Slavery Society, but as the editor, at 
different times, of the "Pennsylvania Freeman." C. 
C. Burleigh had done noble work as a lecturer in 
Eastern Pennsylvania, before the division. He was 
succeeded in that field by his younger brother, Cyrus 
M. Burleigh, vvho gave himself to the cause in his 
earliest manhood. He was a young man of the very 
highest character, a forcible speaker and a vigorous 
writer. He did excellent service both as a lecturer 



324 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

and editor of the "Pennsylvania Freeman," and his 
early death — which was no doubt caused by his unre- 
served devotion to his work — deprived the cause of a 
champion whose place could never be tilled. The 
cause in Eastern Pennsylvania was also greatly in- 
debted to the wise liberality and the indefatigable 
labors of Edward M. Davis, whose mind was as fertile 
in planning as his hand was ii? executing anti-slavery 
measures. Another power that w^'ought mightily for 
the cause in that region, and especially in Philadel- 
phia, was the pulpit of the Rev. William H. Furness, 
D. D., of the Unitarian denomination. In every 
crisis of the cause his voice rang out in clear tones, in 
vindication of outraged right, and in rebuke of popular 
wrong. He occupied in Philadelphia a position like 
that of Theodore Parker in Boston, who surpassed 
him neither in clearness of vision nor boldness of 
utterance. His pulpit was a great light amid the 
darkness of the time, and to it the Abolitionists con- 
stantly turned for words of cheer and hope. 

After the separation, the Western Anti-Slavery 
Society was organized in North-eastern Ohio, Western 
Pennsylvania being included in the field of its opera- 
tions. "The Anti-Slavery Bugle" was also founded at 
Salem, Ohio, Benjamin S. and Jane Elizabeth Jones 
being its editors until 1849, when I took charge of it 
for two years, being followed at the end of that time 
by Marius R. Robinson. Mrs. Jones, as Jane Eliza- 
beth Hitchcock, was the first woman, I believe, to 
follow the example of Abby Kelley in entering the 
lecture field. She was admirably fitt(^d for the Avork, 
being an excellent speaker as well as a forcible writer. 
Her'^labors in the State of New York and in the field 
occupied by the Western Anti- Slavery Society won 
for her the esteem and affection of her associates and 
the respect of the community. The AVestern Society 
was largely indebted for its efficiency to the labors of 



GARRISON AXD HIS TIMES. 325 

James W. Walker, for many years its indefatigable 
lecturing agent. He was, I believe, when he first en- 
tered the field, a preacher of the new anti-slavery 
denomination of Wesleyans. His heart was thor- 
oughly enlisted in the work, and his life was no doubt 
shortened by a zeal which would not permit him to 
rest, l)ut constantly impelled him to overtax his 
strenc^th. 

It will be seen, therefore, that the Garrisonians, 
besides preserving the National Society, had the sup- 
port, during much of the time after 1840, of not less 
than four State auxiliaries — one of them, that of 
Massachusetts, having been the most efiicient of all 
from the first — and of five weekly papers, viz., "The 
Liberator," in Boston; the "National Anti-Slavery 
Standard," in New York; the "Pennsylvania Free- 
man," in Philadelphia; the "Anti-Slavery Bugle," in 
Salem, Ohio; and the "Herald of Freedom," in Con- 
cord, N. H. The last-mentioned paper Avas discon- 
tinued in 1846, or thereabout ; Avhile the " Freeman " 
was united Avith the "Standard" in 1855. The 
" Bugle " w\as not discontinued till near the day of 
emancipation. "The Liberator" and the "Standard" 
continued in the field long enough to record not only 
Lincoln's decree of emancipation, but the adoption of 
those amendments to the Constitution which dissolved 
forever that " covenant with death " and that " agree- 
ment with hell " which they had done so much to 
make odious in the eyes of the people. Mr. Garrison 
and his supporters were not indeed formidable in 
respect of numbers, or wealth, or social position ; but 
theirs was a warfare of the kind in which one is able 
to chase a thousand, and two to put ten thousand to 
flight ; n;iy, in which one, with God, is a n^ajority. 
Their movement was like a great revolving light on a 
headland, whose rays penetrate far out into the dark- 
ness, warning the navigator of the breakers to be 



326 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

shunned, and revealino^ the course to ii safe harbor. 
Careful navigators on the sea of politics watched for 
that light and laid their course by it in times of 
danger. Such men as Sumner and Wilson, if they 
did not alwaj's agree with Mr. Garrison, took note of 
his warnings, which they knew were never given 
without cause. They read "The Liberator" and the 
"Standard," and w^ere not ashamed to acknowledge 
their indebtedness to them for wise susfsrestions and a 
wholesome moral stimulus, such as they rarely found 
in their party journals. ]\Ir. Sumner, during the 
twelve years that I was connected with the " Stand- 
ard," never failed to call at the Anti-Slavery Office, 
on his way to and from Washington, to consult those 
whom he found there in re2:ard to the issues of the 
time. If he was more clear-sighted than many others, 
and less inclined to adopt half-way measures, or to 
relax his hold upon great principles, it was in part 
because from the first he was a diligent reader of 
"The Liberator" and the "Standard," and often in 
close consultation with Mr. Garrison. That so many 
others in the Republican ranks occasionally faltered in 
their allegiance to the cause, and were ready some- 
times to enter into specious compromises with the 
enem}', may be accounted for by the fact, that not 
having read the Abolition journals, nor become 
acquainted with non-political Abolitionists, they did 
not set their compass l)y the eternal stars, but were 
governed by the shifting rules of expediency. Again 
and again, as Mr. Sumner himself sadly admitted, the 
cause was well-nigh shipwrecked on this account. 
Daniel Webster, after his apostasy, spoke with bitter 
contempt of "the rubadub of abolition;" but the 
power which he would fain have persuaded himself 
was only a fanatical din, was sufficient to defeat his 
carefully-laid schemes for the humiliation of New 
England, and send him to his grave under an unen- 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 327 

dumble load of shame and self-reproach. If he had 
availed hiniselt'of the instruction of "The Liberator" 
at as early a day as Mr. Sumner did, he might have 
spared Massachusetts the pain of discarding him as 
one Avho had betrayed her in the hour of her ex- 
tremity. 

The uppermost question in politics at the time of 
the division in the anti-slavery ranks and for some 
years afterwards, was the annexation of Texas. Mr. 
Garrison was one of the first to discern and expose 
the plot of the slaveholders in that quarter. As 
early as 1837 he began to agitate the subject, and it 
was larirely cwins: to his influence that Massachusetts 
w\as roused to make a stubborn thongh unsuccesstul 
resistance to the annexation scheme. Lecturing agents 
took up the theme, diffusing light and stirring the 
people to action. The subject of slavery in the Dis- 
trict of Columbia was also extensively discussed^ and 
the doors of Faneuil Hall were opened for a meeting 
on that subject, at which Mr. Garrison presided. Li 
short, Avhatever it was possible to do to keep the sub- 
ject of slavery in all its aspects, political, economical 
and religious, before the people of the whole country, 
w^as done by the Garrisonians, through their newspa- 
pers, lecturers and tracts. Members of Congress, 
wishing to speak upon the subject, turned to the anti- 
slavery papers for facts and arguments, and those 
papers in turn spread their speeches before the people. 
Thus there was a genuine reciprocity of labor between 
those in the moral and those in the political fi.dd. 
This was so to the very end of the conflict, Mr. Garri- 
son and his friends always recognizing and commend- 
ing every act of genuine hostility to slavery, on what- 
ever field it might bo witnessed. If they felt, as they 
undoubtedly did, that their own position was more 
favorable than any other for efficient action against 
slavery, and if they sought by every means in their 



328 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

power to bring others to their ground, they did not 
forget that many of those who differed very widely 
from them upon some important points, were yet as 
conscientious as themselves, and as earnestly bent 
upon destroying slavery by the means which seemed to 
them right and feasible. The moral platform, indeed, 
was broad enough for all earnest workers, and all 
were invited to stand upon it and speak the word that 
was in their hearts. There was hardly ever an anni- 
versary or other public occasion, when one or more of 
the invited speakers did not differ on some important 
points from the majority. No offence was taken if one 
speaker, out of his regard for the cause, criticised 
another. Indeed, it was one of the peculiarities of the 
Garrisonian movement that it kept its platform free, 
not only to dissenting friends, but even to the avowed 
enemies of the cause, if they would consent to sub- 
stitute arcfuments for brickbats and rotten cfrsfs. 

Any account of the moral agitation of the slavery 
question from 1846 to 1858 would be sadly defective, 
Avhich did not recognize the powerful presence of The- 
odore Parker. Pie did not accept the Garrisonian 
view of the Constitution, but on every other point he 
was in close affinity with us. lie loved to speak from 
our platform, and never once declined to do so if it 
was in his power to answer our summons. He was at 
home there, and set a very high value upon the influ- 
ence of the Garrisonian movement. He knew that 
the discussions of our platform contributed mightily 
to the formation of that sound public sentiment, with- 
out which no measures in opposition to slavery could be 
effective. In his own pulpit he never failed to improve 
an opportunity to bring the question of slavery before 
his hearers. His name was a terror to the ecclesiiisti- 
cal and political trimmers of his time, but a star of 
hope to the oppressed, especially to fugitive slaves, 
harried by official kidnappers and in danger of being 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 329 

seized under the shadows of Fiineuil Hall or of the stee- 
ples of immberless ftishionable churches, and doomed 
once more to wear the chain and feel the lash of slavery. 
The brave words spoken hy him were a part of the 
very soul of the time, aud his name Avill be reverently 
cherished when the moral dwarfs of the Boston pulpit, 
Orthodox and Liberal, who droned over their creeds 
and formalities while the nation was sinking into the 
embrace of the Slave Power, will be remembered no 
more. 

Three other young preachers of the time, kindred 
in spirit to Mr. Parker, and equally bold in their 
sphere, deserve to be mentioned for the help they gave 
to our stru2:2flin2: cause. One of these, Thomas Went- 
worth Higginson, first in Newbury port, then in 
Worcester, made his pulpit a centre of light and 
power ; the other, O. B. Frothingham, standing in 
one of the most conservative pulpits in the State, 
dared to plead for the oppressed when most of the 
ministers around him were silent. Mr. Higginson 
often, Mr. Frothingham occasionally, gave us valuable 
aid on the platform upon anniversary occasions. Mr. 
Higgiuson, in the dark days of the Fugitive Slave law, 
was foremost among those who organized resistance 
to that infamous statute ; and soon after the war broke 
out he entered the army, and was subsequently made 
commander of the first regiment of colored soldiers 
called into the service. Samuel Johnson, for many 
years pastor of the Free Church in Lynn, bore weighty 
testimony in every crisis of the cause. There is 
yet another man, who, though he never made a public 
address, deserves honorable mention for long and 
valuable service of the cause with his pen. I allude 
to Charles K. Whipple, whose faithful exposures, in 
tracts and newspaper articles, of the subterfuges and 
false pretences of the pro-slavery clergy and churches 
were always timely and effective. 

43 



330 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

As my memory runs back over the thirty years and 
more of the anti-slavery conflict, a long procession of 
anti-slavery lecturers passes before me, with many of 
whom I Avas more or less closely acquainted, while 
others were known to me only by name or through 
such information respecting their labors as could be 
gleaned from the anti-slavery i:)apers. This phalanx 
was the advance-guard of the anti-slavery army — its 
pioneers, scouts, sappers and miners, foragers, etc. — 
each of whom had to encounter the foe single-handed 
and take many a hard blow. Or, to change the mili- 
tary for an industrial figure, they were the "field 
hands," who bore the heat and burden of the day, and 
endured hardships and toils, especially in the mob 
days, which put their pluck and endurance to the 
proof. On the head of each one of these faithful 
soldiers, were it in my power, I would place the chap- 
let he so richly deserves ; but these pages are all too 
scant for the bestowment of such honors. Of some 
of them I have spoken in previous chapters. A few 
others only will it bo possible for me to mention here. 

And first, let me speak of one who for eighteen 
years filled the responsible post of general agent of 
the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, and a part 
of the time that of the American Society as well, — 
the Eev. Samuel May, to whose sound judgment, 
unwearied patience, and unselfish devotion the cause 
was most deeply indebted. In him gentleness is most 
happily combined with firmness, and a courage that 
knows no fear. He relinquished a pulpit because he 
could not consent to wear a chain, and cheerfully 
took up the cross of Abolitionism amid the scoff's and 
frowns of misiruidcd but influential men. The aGfents 
who labored under his wise direction loved him as a 
brother. His contributions to the anti-slavery press, 
especially to " The Liberator," were of much practical 
value. No man stood higher than he did in the con- 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 331 

fidcnce of Mr. Garrison, and, when the great leader 
died, he was fitly selected to conduct the funeral 
services. 

Stephen S. Foster, if I mistake not, was in full 
career for the pulpit when the slave's cry of anguish 
broke upon his ear, and touched his warm heart. 
That cry was for him a summons to another field, and 
to that summons he paid instant heed, not doubting 
that it was from the Master to whom he had conse- 
crated his powers. A more guileless and ingenuous 
man I have never known. No saint of the middle 
a^es ever surrendered himself more completely than 
he did to what he understood to be the service of God 
and humanity. His faith in moral principles was 
absolute, and he could not knowingly or consciously 
swerve from them in his conduct. Ho felt the wrongs 
of the slave as if they were inflicted upon himself; 
and such was his courage that he could face a mob, 
withstand a friend, or go into a minority of one with- 
out flinching. Neither his hatred of wrong nor his 
rebukes of wrong-doers were mixed with any dross of 
passion. Sometimes those who best loved him dis- 
sented from his opinions and criticised his acts ; but 
no one ever questioned his honesty or doubted his 
perfect candor. His rare earnestness and sincerity 
^'•ave him great powder over an audience, and made him 
popular with many as a speaker. His coolness in 
facing a mob was phenomenal. He was one of the 
" sappers and miners " of the anti-slavery army, and 
ready at all times to attack the enemy's fortifications. 
His old friends will enjoy this humorous description 
of him by James Russell Lowell : — 

*'IIard by, as calm as summer even, 
Smiles the reviled niid pelted Stephen, 
Tlic imappeasablc Boanerges 
To all the churches aud the clergies; 
The grim savant, who, to complete 
His own peculiar cabinet, 



332 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

Contrived to label with his kicks 

Oue from the followers of Elias Hicks; 

"Who studied mineralogy, 

Not with soft book upon the knee, 

But learned the properties of stones 

By contact sharp of flesh and bones, 

And made the experiment iini cnicis 

With his own body's vital juices; 

A man with caoutchouc endurance, 

A i)erfect gem for life insurance ; 

A kind of maddened John the Baptist, 

To whom the harshest word comes aptest, 

Who, struck by stone or brick ill-starred, 

Hurls back an epithet as hard. 

Which, deadlier than stone or brick, 

Has a propensity to stick. 

His oratory is like the scream 

Of the iron horse's frenzied steam. 

Which warns the world to leave a space 

For the black engine's swerveless race." 

Another member of the "sappers and mmers' corps" 
was Parker Pillsbuiy, who got clear into the pulpit 
before the cause hiid hold of him, but who, notwith- 
standing, came into our ranks at an early day, in time 
to see hard service. He carried the gospel of free- 
dom into many a dark place. Endowed with a vivid 
imas^ination, he could set the enormities of the slave 
system and the guilt of its supporters in their true 
light. His speeches were strong in argument, earnest 
and solemn in the manner of delivery, and adorned 
with an imagery which to many was exceedingly fas- 
cinating. In many places, both in New England and 
the West, he was a great favorite. His labors in 
many fields were abundant and valuable. He also did 
excellent service for a time as editor of the "Herald of 
Freedom." I must again draw upon James llussell 
Lowell for a bit of genial description, the accuracy of 
which will be generally acknowledged : — 

" Beyond, a crater in each eye. 
Sways brown, broad-shouldered Pillsbury; 
Who tears up words, like trees, by the roots — 
A Thesus iu stout cowhide boots. 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 333 

A terrible denouncer he ! 

Old Sinai burns nnquencliably 

Upon his lips ; he well might be a 

Hot-blnzing soul from fierce Judea, 

Plabakkuk, Ezra, or Hosea. 

His words burn as with iron searers, 

And, nightmare-like, he mounts his hearers, 

Spurring them like avenging fate; or 

As Waterton his alligator." 

As I lay down my pen, the procession moves on 
before me, and I see the faces of C. L. Remond, 
Frederick Douglass, James Mimroe, A. T. Foss, Wil- 
liam Wells Brown, Sallie HoUey, Henry C. Wright 
(fighting "on his own hook," but always at the front), 
Dr. E. D. Hudson, Aaron M. Powell, George Brad- 
burn, Lucy Stone, Edwin Thompson, Nathaniel H. 
W^hiting, Sumner Lincoln, James Boyle, Giles B. 
Stebbins, Thomas T. Stone, George W. Putnam, 
Joseph A. Howland, Anna E. Dickinson, Susan B. 
Anthony, Frances E. Watkins, Loring Moody, Adin 
Ballou, W. H. Fish, Daniel Foster, A. J. Grover, 
James N. Buffum, and scores beside, — some of them 
in the spirit-land, others still lingering amid the scenes 
of earth, — to whom I can only give from my heart a 
passing salute of recognition. Blessings on them all, 
and upon each one of the unknown and innumerable 
host that fought to redeem the Republic and break the 
fetters of the slave ! 



334 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 



XX. 

The Question of Disunion — The Declaration of 1833 — The Ameri- 
can Idol — Tbo " Covenant with Death,'' and the "Agreement -u'ith 
Hell" — Dr. Channing's Opinion — "No Union "v\'ith Slavehold- 
ers" — The Demoralizing Influence of the Constitution — Tho 
Claim that it was Anti-Slavery — John Quincy Adams's Opinion 
— Judge Jay in Favor of Disunion — Need of a Sound Ethical 
Basis — Political Effects of tho Agitation — Tho liebellion 
Changes the Issue — Mr. Garrison Vindicated. 

As early as 1843, Mr. Garrison began to discuss in 
" The Liberator " the question whether it was not tho 
duty of the people of the free States, on account of 
the inherent wickedness of those provisions of the 
Constitution which related to slavery, to dissolve their 
political relations with the South. It w^as a startling 
proposition, from which many Abolitionists wiiile 
acknowledirinof the strens^th of the arc^uments ursfed in 
its behalf, shrank back appalled. It seems strange 
now that Mr. Garrison's mind did not sooner arrive 
at this point, and that for so long a time the Aboli- 
tionists habitually claimed that their movement had a 
tendency to preserve the Union. Turning to the 
Declaration of Sentiments — our Magna Charta — 
adopted in 1833, I find this passage : — 

" The}^ [the people of the free States] are now living 
under a pledge of their tremendous physical force, to fasten 
the galling fetters of tyrann}' upon the limbs of millions in 
the Southern States ; they are liable to be called at any 
moment to suppress a general insurrection of the slaves ; 
they authorize the slave-owner to vote for three-fifths of his 
slaves as propert}^ and thus enable him to perpetuate his 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 335 

oppression ; and they seize the slave, who has escaped into 
their territories, and send him back to be tortured by an 
enraged master or a brutal driver. This relation to slavery 
is criminal, and full of danger : it must be broken up." 

That Mr. Garrison could write this passage with 
care and deliberation, and read it many times in the 
course of ten years, without being aware that it was a 
specific argument for disunion, only shows how near 
even a clear-headed man can sometimes come to a new 
thought without quite discovering it. If the relation 
of the people of the free States to slavery, as defined 
in the provisions of the Constitution, was " criminal 
and full of danger," how could it be innocently 
tolerated for an hour ? And how could it " be broken 
up," without at the same time breaking the bonds of 
the Union ? The Constitution could not be changed 
without the consent of the slave States, or a consider- 
able portion of them ; and certainly that consent was 
not likely to be given. And yet, it is to be presumed 
that, for ten years, Mr. Garrison regarded this striking 
paragraph from his own pen only as defining an obli- 
gation " resting upon the people of the free States to 
remove slavery by moral and political action, as pre- 
scribed in the Constitution of the United States." 
And it would seem that the Abolitionists, as a body, 
cherished the conviction that the measures sanctioned 
by the Constitution were adequate to the complete 
overthrow of the slave system ; although from the 
beginning they confessed that, " under the present 
national compact, Congress has no right to interfere 
with any of the States, in relation to this momentous 
subject." However this apparent blindness may be 
explained, it now passed away from the mind of Mr. 
Garrison, who thenceforth saw clearly that the obliga- 
tions imposed by the Constitution upon the people of 
the non-slaveholding States in relation to slavery were 
immoral in their nature, and therefore not to be inno- 



336 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

cently acknowledged by them, on any plea of interest 
or necessity, for a single clay. Of course, when this 
became clear to his mind, he did not lack courage to 
declare the truth. No man knew better than he that 
the Union w^as the idol of the American people, and 
w^orshipped b}^ them as the source of every national 
blessing, the glory of the past and the present, and 
the foundation of every hope for the future. The 
Jewish nation hardly had a deeper reverence for the 
ark, which they supposed to be the very dwelling-place 
of Jehovah, than the people of the United States had 
for their national compact; and when Mr. Garrison, 
finding in the words of the prophet Isaiah a phrase 
happily suited to his purpose, denounced it as a 
" covenant with death " and an " asfreement with hell " 
(Is. xxviii. 18) , they lifted up their hands as if they had 
heard the most awful blasphemy. Even the religious 
press chose to seem unaware that the w^ords were bor- 
rowed from Scripture, and went on prating of Mr. 
Garrison's " harsh and vituperative language." If any 
one imagines that the Hebrew prophet had any more 
IDrovocation for the use of such words than Mr. Gar- 
rison had, he is advised to study the record. If the 
Jews acknowledged any covenant more deadly, or any 
agreement more characteristic of hell than that by 
which the Northern people bound themselves in re- 
spect to slavery in the National Constitution, the eye 
of no commentator upon the Scriptures has ever pointed 
it out. Mr. Garrison found his models of style in deal- 
ing with popular systems of iniquity in the Jewish 
prophets, and in Jesus and his Apostles ; which ac- 
counts at once for his "hard language" and his great 
power as a reformer. Dr. Channing, though he did 
not follow Isaiah so closely as Mr. Garrison did, 3^et 
saw clearly the character of the national compact. 
"The free States," he said, "are guardians and essen- 
tial supports of slavery. We are the jailers and con- 



GARRISOJT Amy HIS TIMES. 337 

stables of the institution. ... On this subject our 
fathers, in framing the Constitution, swerved from the 
right. We, their children, at the end of half a cen- 
tury, see the path of duty more clearly than they, and 
must walk in it. No blessings of the Union can be a 
compensation for taking part in the enslaving of our 
fellow-creatures. And to this conviction they must 
speedily come, or the power of self-recovery will be 
lost forever, and their damnation made sure." If Dr. 
Channing had not died so soon after writing these 
words, perhaps he and Mr. Garrison would have struck 
hands in the effort to induce the people of the free 
States to repudiate the unrighteous promises made by 
the fiithers, and refuse to be the jailers and constables 
of the slave system. Who knows? 

Mr. Garrison, as soon as the truth became clear to 
his own mind, set himself to the task of bringing his 
associates up to the same high ground, and to the 
exhibition of the same courage that he had himself 
displayed. There must be no faltering at such a 
crisis ; the truth must be proclaimed, whether men 
would hear or forbear. The riHit, and the risfht 
alone, was his pole-star, to be followed in every emer- 
gency and at every hazard. Henceforth it must be 
his chief business to convict the Northern people of 
sin in consenting to be " the guardians and essential 
supports " of slavery, and to bring them to a heartfelt 
and speedy repentance. Their dangerous and criminal 
relation to the slave system must soon " be broken 
up," or, in the words of Channing, "the power of self- 
recovery would be lost forever." There were, there 
could be, no questions of expediency worth a moment's 
consideration, or that could offer any excuse for delay. 
He began with the Massachusetts Society in January, 
1844 ; but even that body was not then quite ready to 
follow his lead. He brought the subject before the 
American Society in May, and, after a long and very 

43 



338 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

exciting discussion, that society, by a vote of 59 to 
21, put itself squarely on the ground of disunion. 
The New England Convention followed, two weeks 
later, voting the same way, — 250 to 24. Then the 
whole Garrisonian phalanx swung solidly round to 
the same position, and the movement thenceforth car- 
ried aloft the banner, "No Union with Slaveholders." 

Not for a moment did Mr. Garrison stop to consider 
what would be the consequences, near or remote, of 
taking this ground. Whether a multitude would rally 
around him, or half his old friends turn sorrowfully 
away, he could not, nor did he even seek to know. 
He saw the truth, and instantly obeyed its voice, 
sure, if he considered the matter at all, that the con- 
sequences could not be otherwise than good ; and the 
result justified his confidence. If there was no flock- 
ing of great numbers to the standard, the moral power 
of the movement was augmented by being placed upon 
a sound and consistent ethical basis, where its friends 
could stand without dodging or wavering, and which 
made all weapons formed against it harmless. The 
time had come when it was absolutely necessary to 
destroy the idolatrous reverence for the Constitution 
which had so long been the shield and buckler of 
slavery, and a covert for tricksters and hucksters of 
every sort. Nothing could more surely promote the 
demoralization of a people than the " exaltation above 
all that is called God, or that is worshipped," of a 
Constitution of government defiled by slavery, and 
made the chief fortress for its protection. In any 
point of view, therefore, it was a high service ren- 
dered to the people of this country when the anti- 
slavery movement assailed this fortress, and showed it 
to be full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. 
In the early days of the cause, we used to wonder why 
Northern members of Congress who were anti-slavery 
at home found it so hard to keep their footing in 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 339 

Washington. The simple truth was that, between 
what the Constitution forbade them to do in opposi- 
tion to slavery and required them to do for its sup- 
port, there Avas hardly an inch of ground on which 
they could stand ; and so, one after another, smitten 
by the popular idolatry of the instrument, they found 
no place for the soles of their feet save in the slippery 
ways of compromise, where they were utterly power- 
less to help the slave. Year after year, the Abolition- 
ists had seen this farce played before their eyes 
without half understanding it ; but now their eyes 
were opened, and everytliing was clear to their vision. 
How could men be true to tlie slave, and at the same 
time obey an oath to sustain a pro-slavery Constitu- 
tion? Under such conditions. Congress became a 
sepulchre, where free souls could hardly draw the 
breath of life. If Sumner and Wilson and Hale and 
Chase did breathe and do noble work there, it was 
only because they found a way to break through the 
web which the Constitution wove about them, and 
thus maintain their alleo'iance to the Hisfher Law. 
That they were able to do this may have been owing 
very largely to the influence of the Garrisonian move- 
ment in diminishing the popular reverence for the 
Constitution as it had so long been interpreted, and in 
forming a public opinion which would pardon a breach 
of sinful compromises, but would not pardon a want of 
fealty to the cause of freedom. 

There was a considerable body of. men, some of 
them eminent for ability and worth as well as for long 
service in the cause of freedom, who strenuously held 
that there was not a clause or word in the Constitution 
that was not, upon a fair and right construction, in 
accordance with sound principles of law and rigid rules 
of philology, anti-slavery. William Goodell, Gerrit 
Smith, George B. Cheever, and Frederick Douglass 
also in the later years of the struggle, were of this 



340 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

party. Their reasoning was ingenious and plausible, 
and "^ sometimes quite effective, like that of the man 
•\vho has a logical way of showing that you have no 
nose on your face. If there is no mirror present and 
your hands are tied behind your back, he can convince 
you for the moment ; but the very next time you con- 
front a looking-glass you find your nose in the sa::ie 
old place. It was easy to show, if a man could ouiy 
be made to forget the facts of history, that the Consti- 
tution was as pure as if made in heaven, instead of 
being the work of a nation with hundreds of thousands 
of slaves, and of politicians bent not only upon guarding 
the system of slavery from national encroachment, but 
even upon gaining for it positive protection. The fact 
that for twenty years that Constitution lent the national 
flag for the protection of the foreign slave-trade, and 
that during that long period the shores of Africa were 
invaded by American man-hunters, employed by New 
England capital to pillage, murder, burn and kidnap 
at their will, without the least fear of being called to 
account for their crimes, settles the character of the 
old Constitution so far as slavery was concerned ; and 
when to this was added the provision allowing the 
slaveholders to count three-fifths of their slaves in the 
basis of representation, the clause providing for the 
suppression of slave insurrections by the national 
forces, and the article making provision for the return 
of fuiritive slaves, its character became so black that 
the phrases "covenant with death" and "agreement 
with hell" seemed a label all too mild. The interpre- 
tations by which the instrument was made to wear an 
anti-slavery character had, hoAvever, some value as an 
honest protest against the wickedness of slavery, and 
as a method of relieving some troubled consciences. 
An association, called the American Abolition Society, 
was organized upon this basis, but it was short-lived. 
In comparison with this, the doctrine of disunion, 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 341 

revolting as it was to many, seemed rcasonal)lc and 
practical, for it was in perfect accordance with the 
facts in the case, and rested npon a basis of moral 
principle which everybody could comprehend. " There 
are some very worthy men," said Mr. Garrison, "who 
are gravely trying to convince this slaveholding and 
slave-trading nation that it has an anti-slavery Consti- 
tution, if it did but know it — always has had it since 
it was a nation — and so desis^ned to be from the 
beginning. Hence, all slaveholding under it is illegal, 
and ought forthwith to be abolished by act of Congress. 
As rationally attempt to convince the American people 
that they inhabit the moon and ^ run upon all fours,' 
as that they have not intelligently, deliberately and 
purposely entered into a covenant by which three 
millions of slaves are now held securely in bondage. 
They are not to be let off so easily, either by indignant 
Heaven or outrasred earth. To tell them that for three- 
score years they have misunderstood and misinter- 
preted their own Constitution, in a manner gross and 
distorted beyond anything known in human history ; 
that Washington, Jefferson, Adams, all who framed 
that Constitution — the Supreme Court of the United 
States and all its branches and all other courts, the 
National Conorress and all State Les^islatures — have 
utterly perverted its scope and meaning, is the coolest 
and absurdest thing ever heard of beneath the stars. 
. . . . The people of this country have bound 
themselves by an oath to have no other God before them 
but a Constitutional God, which their own hands have 
made, and to which they demand homage of every one 
born or resident on the American soil, on peril of im- 
prisonment or death. His fiat is 'the supreme law of 
the land.' . . . Three millions of the American 
people are crushed under the American Union. ^ They 
are held as slaves, trafficked as merchandise, registered 
as goods and chattels. The government gives them 



342 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

no protection, the government is their enemy, the 
government keeps them in chains. Where they he 
bleeding, we are prostrated by their side ; in their 
sorrows and snfferings we participate ; their stripes 
are inflicted on our bodies ; their shackles arc fiistened 
on our limbs ; their cause is ours. The Union which 
grinds them to the dust rests upon us, and with them 
w^e will stru2:2fle to overthrow it. The Constitution 
which subjects them to hopeless bondage we cannot 
swear to support. Our motto is, 'No Union with 
Slaveholders,' either religious or political. They 
are the fiercest enemies of mankind, and the bitterest 
foes of God. We separate from them, not in anger, 
not in malice, not for a selfish purpose, not to do them 
an injury, not to cease warning, exhorting, reproving 
them for their crimes, not to leave the perishing bond- 
man to his fate — Oh, no. But to clear our skirts of 
innocent blood — to give the oppressor no countenance 
— and to hasten the downfall of slavery in America 
and throuirhout the world." 

In his estimate of the character of the American 
Union, Mr. Garrison was -supported by John Quincy 
Adams, who said: "The bargain between Freedom 
and Slavery, contained in the Constitution of the 
United States, is morally and politically vicious, incon- 
sistent with the principles on which alone our Revolution 
can be justified, cruel and oppressive by riveting the 
chains of slavery, and by pledging the faith of freedom 
to maintain and perpetuate the tyranny of the master." 
The doctrine of disunion, too, found strong backing in 
influential quarters. " Should the slaveholders suc- 
ceed," — said the lion. William Jay, in a letter to 
Edward M. Davis of Philadelphia, — "in their design 
of annexing Texas, then indeed would I not merely 
discuss, but with all my powers would I advocate 
an immediate dissolution. I love my children, my 
friends, my country too well to leave them a prey to 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 343 

the accursed government which would be sure to fol- 
low." Again, writing to Mr. Henry I. Bowditch of 
Boston, March 19, 1845, he said: "Dissohition must 
taive place, and the sooner the better. It is flir more 
probable that a continuance of our present connection 
will enslave the North than that it will free the South. 
A separation will be more easily effected noio than 
when the relative strength of the South shall have 
been greatly augmented. Hereafter we shall be as 
serfs rebelling against their bonds. JVow, if the North 
pleases, we may dissolve the Union without spilling a 
drop of blood." Thus it looked to Judge Jay after 
the annexation of Texas. But he, no more than the 
rest of us, foresaw that, after gaining Texas, the 
South would bring disaster upon herself by wrenching 
from Mexico a still larger domain, on the shores of 
the Pacific, upon which she would find it impossible to 
plant her hateful system, but which w^ould restore the 
balance of power to the North. In principle, however, 
his words are a complete justification and endorsement 
of the course pursued by Mr. Garrison. 

A working hypothesis is not more indispensable to 
the scientific investigator than is a sound ethical basis 
of action to the moral reformer. The latter, indeed, 
dooms himself to inevitable defeat if he substitutes 
expediency for principle, or fails to declare the ulti- 
mate and fundamental truth. Mr. Garrison did not 
concern himself wdth the modes of political action by 
which the Northern people might escape from the toils 
of the Slave Power ; he fabricated no scheme of gov- 
ernment to supersede that of the Union. He knew 
that, in their individual capacity, they could at once 
peaceably repudiate the immoral compromises of the 
Constitution and cease to give support to slavery ; and 
he knew equally well that w^hen a majority of their 
number should be brouoht to take this hiofh ofround, 
they would find a way to organize such a government 



344 GARRISON AND HIS TLMES. 

as their needs required. As emancipation must pre- 
cede all effective efibrt to uplift the slave, so the peo- 
ple of the North must first dissolve their guilty relation 
with the Slave Power before they could establish for 
themselves a pure government. The path of duty for 
him was clear. He nmst cry aloud, spare not, and lift 
up his voice like a trumpet, showing the people their 
transgression, the citizens of the Republic their sins. 
Called of God, as he believed, to this work, he obeyed 
the heavenly voice with no concern for the conse- 
quences, knowing that they could only be such as nat- 
urally follow right-doing. "Do you ask," he said, 
"what can be done if you abandon the ballot-box? 
What did the crucified Nazarene do without the elec- 
tive franchise ? What did the Apostles do ? AYhat 
did the glorious army of martyrs and confessors do ? 
What did Luther and his intrepid associates do ? 

* If thou must stand alone, what then? The honor shall be more! 
But thou canst never stand alone while heaven still arches o'er — 
While there's a God to worship, a devil to be denied — 
The good and true of every age stand with thee, side by side ! ' 

The form of government that shall succeed the present 
government of the United States, let time determine. 
It would be a waste of time to argue that question 
until the people are regenerated and turned from their 
iniquity. Ours is no anarchical movement, but one of 
order and obedience. In ceasing from oppression, we 
establish liberty. What is now fragmentary shall in 
due time be crystallized, and shine like a gem set in 
the heavens, for a liirht to all comin<2: aires." 

From 1844 to 18G1, the Garrisonian agitation pro- 
ceeded upon this ground of the inherent defilement of 
the Constitution — " the saturation of the parchment," as 
John Quincy Adams said, " with the infection of slavery, 
which no fumigation could purify, no quarantine could 
extinguish." The truth was proclaimed in the anti- 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 345 

slavery journals, ill pamphlets and tracts, in conven- 
tions innumerable, and by the voices of a phalanx of 
lecturers, with Garrison and Phillips at their head. 
But while all discussion led in one way or another to 
this point, no aspect of the slavery question was 
neglected. The movements in Congress and the State 
Legislatures were watched and stimulated by every 
means in our power. The action of the political par- 
ties and ecclesiastical bodies was carefully scrutinized, 
and wherever any honest voice was heard pleading the 
cause of the slave, no matter under what limitations, 
it was welcomed and cheered. The bruised reed was 
not broken, nor the smoking flax quenched. Timidity 
was encouraged to be brave, despair was taught to be 
hopeful. Tricksters and trimmers, men of false pre- 
tences, were alone repelled and scourged. The Gar- 
risonian movement quickened and elevated every other. 
It helped to make the Republican party firm in pur- 
pose, quick in action, and proof against compromise. 
Our meetings in New York and Boston — sometimes in 
Faneuil Hall — were watched with intense eagerness 
and constantly increasing respect by men of all parties 
and sects. However far public sentiment might at 
any time fall short of our ground, the politiciaiis knew 
that it was constantly advancing, and would ultimately 
reach the highest mark. Garrison led the great chorus 
of voices that swelled up to heaven from every part of 
the country, from people of every variety of opinions 
upon other subjects, but united in proclaiming slavery 
to be a sin and crime, and in demanding its immediate 
extinction. Grumblers, forced by public opinion out 
of the pro-slavery ranks, and compelled to do half- 
hearted service in the cause, kept up their denuncia- 
tions of the founder of the movement ; but those who, 
in whatever way, in good faith and with their whole 
hearts, fought slavery, recognized his power and 
honored him for his heroic adherence to principle. 
a 



346 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

And he, on his part, honored them, while fighting in 
their own wa}^ and whether they approved of all his 
measures or not. 

There can be no doubt that in the sixteen years im- 
mediately preceding the Rebellion, the Garrisonian 
movement did much to prepare the Northern people 
for the crisis through which they were called to pass. 
It taught them the folly of that superstitious reverence 
for the Constitution which was so long a main depend- 
ence of the Slave Power. It made further compromise 
impossible, and nerved the arm of the Xorth to do 
and dare in the cause of liberty. If the moral influ- 
ence that stood behind the Kepublican party in that 
trying hour, and which was very largely represented 
by the Garrisonian movement, had been withdrawn, 
who knows into what new depth of humiliation the 
North mio^ht have been draofired? If Abraham Lin- 
coin, in the hope of thereby averting a civil war, could 
execute the infamous Fus^itive Slave law, what miofht 
not have been expected of smaller men, if they had 
not felt the influence of that moral power, which, in- 
dependent of any party influence, w^as working in the 
hearts of their constituents? We needed in that 
awful hour all the strength which a whole generation 
of MORAL AGITATION had developed. No whit of it 
could have been safely spared — least of all that which 
came from the faithful founder and leader of the 
movement. 

The madness of the Rebellion chansred all the con- 

T • • • 

ditions of the problem, and worked out the deliver- 
ance of the North as well as of the slaves by a 
process which no one had contemplated. But if the 
South had submitted to the election of Lincoln, and 
gone on demanding her "pound of flesh" under the 
Constitution, the Garrisonian movement Avould have 
brought victory by another process. It was simply 
impossible that the North could much longer endure 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 347 

the domination of the Slave Power. She must have 
found a way to annul the "covenant with death," and 
overthrow the " agreement with hell." Ail the sio-ns 
pointed to that result. It was not in vain that the 
true character of the American Union, as affected by 
what John Quincy Adams called "the deadly venom 
of slavery," had been faithfully depicted for sixteen 
successive years by men whom no bribes could seduce 
and no terrors frighten from the field. 

AYhen Abraham Lincoln accepted the task of sup- 
pressing the Rebellion, and the whole North rose up 
to sustain him, Mr. Garrison saw at once that the days 
of slavery were numbered ; that the restoration of the 
Union under the old conditions was impossible ; that 
the slaveholders themselves had discarded their main 
defence. There was no longer any need of inculcatino* 
the duty of disunion at the North. He at once re- 
moved from "The Liberator," as an anachronism, his 
motto of "No Union with Slaveholders," and set himself 
to work to develop that public opinion for which Presi- 
dent Lincoln so long waited, and which at last made 
it safe for him to decree the emancipation of the 
slaves. To those who questioned his consistency in 
taking this course, he said, substantially; As Bene- 
dick, when he said he would die a bachelor, did not 
think he should live till he were married, so he (Mr. 
Garrison), when he pledged himself to fight while life 
lasted against the " covenant with death " and the 
" agreement with hell," did not think that he should 
live to see death and hell secede from the Union. As 
they had done so, however, he thought his consis- 
tency might be safely left to take care of itself. As 
one who accepted the principle of non-resistance as 
taught and exemplified by Jesus, he could not himself 
bear arms even in the cause of liberty and humanity ; 
but he felt it right to judge the people of the North 
by their own standard, and to tell them that, as they 



348 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

believed in war, they would be poltroons if thoy did 
not fight. Upon this point, also, he ^vas willing to 
leave his consistency without defence. His own con- 
science was clear. He had tried to persuade the 
people to abolish slavery by peaceful means, warning 
them the while that, if they should refuse to do so, 
the judgments of God might come upon them in a war 
from which there would be no escape. The day of 
retribution had come, and the Northern people were 
shut up to the necessity of either sacrificing their own 
liberty or fighting for the freedom of the slave. 

After the war was over, and w^hen the w^ork of 
reconstruction was before the country, did any one not 
an apologist for slavery dream of restoring the Union 
under the Constitution as it then stood? Did not 
every loyal citizen see clearly that the instrument 
must be so amended that death and hell could never 
again find protection in it? In the amendments Avhich 
were then adopted, and by wdiich slavery was forever 
debarred from the soil of the Kepublic, Mr. Garrison's 
doctrine of disunion was completely vindicated. The 
Constitution under which we are now living is not that 
which he publicly burned on a certain Fourth of July 
in Framingham ; nor is the Union which he sought to 
dissolv^e any longer in existence. The Union of to- 
day is a Union "redeemed, regenerated, and disen- 
thralled by the Genius of Universal Emancipation." 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 349 



XXI. 

Mr. Garrison's Visits Abroad — The London Conference of 1840 — 
American Women Excluded — Mr. Garrison Refuses to bo a 
Member — Excitement in England — O'Connell and Bowring — 
The Visit of 1846 — The Free Church of Scotland — The Visit 
of 1867 — The London Breakfast — John Bright — The Duke of 
Argyll — John Stuart Mill — Goldwin Smith — George Thomp- 
son — Speech of Mr. Garrison — The Visit of 1877 — Sight- 
seeing — Visits to Old Friends — Delectable Days — Farewells. 

Of Mr. Garrison's first visit to England (1833) I 
have already given an account. He went a second 
time as a delegate to the London Anti-Slavery Confer- 
ence of 1840. The friends of New Organization had 
the ear of the British and Foreign Society at that 
time, and care was taken, on this side the water, to 
guard the Conference against the intrusion of women 
from America. The Garrisonian anti-slavery socie- 
ties, having admitted w^omen to membership, were 
bound in honor to respect their rights in the appoint- 
ment of delegates to the Conference. The women 
commissioned as delegates by the different societies 
were : Lucretia Mott, Mrs. Wendell Phillips, Sarah 
Pugh, Mary Grew, Elizabeth J. Neall (now Mrs. 
Sydney Howard Gay), and Emily Winslow (now Mrs. 
Taylor). I venture to say that these were as weN 
qualified for the service as any equal number of the 
other sex, sent to the Conference from this or any 
other country. But the committee of the British and 
Foreign Society, which assumed the right to frame 
rules for the Conference, excluded them, on the ground 
that their admission would be contrary to "British 



350 GARRISON AND IlIS TIMES. 

usage." Wendell Phillips made u strenuous effort to 
induce the Conference to repeal this rule and admit 
the women delegates, but in vain. He spoke elo- 
quentl}', but to men whose minds were made up and 
impatient of argument. The Conference had been in 
session about a week when Mr. Garrison, with N. P. 
Eogers, Charles L. Kemond and William Adams, all 
delegates, arrived in London. When Mr. Garrison 
learned that the credentials of the women delegates 
had been dishonored, he at once determined not to 
enter the Conference, but to take his place in the 
gallery as a spectator. His example was followed by 
the other gentlemen who arrived at the same time with 
himself. Seven other American deleorates, who had 
entered the Conference before Mr. Garrison's arrival, 
framed a protest against the exclusion. These were 
Prof. W. Adam, James Mott, C. E. Lester, Isaac 
Winslow, Wendell Phillips, Jonathan P. Miller and 
George Bradburn. 

Of course, these occurrences made no little stir 
among British Abolitionists. The excluded women 
w^ere treated with the highest respect socially, save by 
a few of the more bigoted sort. The question of their 
exclusion was warmly discussed in private, and many 
of those who made their acquaintance were not a little 
mortified that "British usage" had found such an 
illustration. Daniel O'Connell was amoni? those who 
expressed regret in view of their exclusion, and who 
showed them marked attentions. So also was Sir 
John Bowring, who said, "The coming of those women 
will form an era in the future history of philanthropy. 
They made a deep impression, and have created 
apostles, if as yet they have not multitudes of follow- 
ers." j\Ir. Garrison won universal respect by his 
course in refusinnf to be a member of the Conference. 
As the recognized founder of the movement in the 
United States, he became all the more conspicuous 



GARRISON AND IIIS TIMES. 351 

from his outside position; and the gallery ^\ here ho 
sat, surrounded by the excluded delegates, was a point 
of interest hardly inferior to the Conference itself. 
The head of the table, by a fore-ordained necessity, 
must be where McGreggor sits! Some (not all) of 
the friends of New Organization from America made 
desperate eiforts to discredit Mr. Garrison with the 
Abolitionists of England, but succeeded only in dis- 
crediting themselves. He was treated with the utmost 
respect and consideration on every side, and invited to 
mifold, in private, all those dreadful heresies of opinion 
wdiich had been the cause of so much disturbance in 
his own country. The Abolitionists of Great Britain 
liked him not a whit the less, but all the more, after 
listening to his frank statements and explanations. 
He afterwards said : " If there is any one act of my 
life of which I am particularly proud, it is in refusing 
to join such a body [the London Conference] on terms 
which were manifestly reproachful to my constituents, 
and unjust to the cause of liberty." 

Mr. Garrison crossed the Atlantic for the third time 
in 1846, at the special invitation of the Glasgow 
Emancipation Society, and by advice of the Executive 
Committee of the American Society, to take part in 
the arraignment before the people of Scotland of the 
agents sent by the Free Church of that country to collect 
funds for church purposes among the slaveholders of 
the South. Scotland was deeply moved by the action 
of those agents. Meetings were held in all the princi- 
pal towns, and the cry, " Send Back the Money ! " 
rang out from the lips of thousands and tens of thou- 
sands of people. The Free Church, however, held on 
to the gains of oppression. Henry C. AYright, and, if 
I mistake not, Charles L. Kemond and James N. 
Bufium were already in Scotland when the agents 
returned from the United States. They, with Mr. 
Garrison and George Thompson, took part in the 



352 GAPwRISOX AND HIS TIMES. 

meetings called to protest against the scandalous en- 
dorsement of slavery by Scottish Christians. The 
conduct of the agents of the Free Church excited 
universal indignation among the Abolitionists. The 
Executive Committee of the American and Forei<^n 
Society sent an eloquent protest, in the form of a letter 
to the Free Church, from the pen of Judge «Jay. How 
much money the church obtained at the South, as a 
reward for the silence of its a^^ents in resfard to the 
atrocities of slavery, I do not remember, but it was a 
considerable sum. Mr. Garrison spoke on the sul)ject 
in many places in Scotland, with his usual eloquence 
and power ; but he might as well have tried to unlock 
the grasp of a miser on his hoard as to force out of a 
church treasury, under such circumstances, the gains 
of unrighteousness. 

In 1867, two years after the close of the civil war, 
Mr. Garrison, partly on account of impaired" health 
and partly to make what he then supposed would be 
his farewell visit to his English, Scotch and Irish 
friends, crossed the ocean for the fourth time. As 
two of his children were then in Paris, he embraced 
the opportunity of visiting the Continent for the lirst 
time. Crossing the Atlantic in May, in company with 
George Thompson, who was returning to England 
from America for the last time, he immediately joined 
his children in Paris, where he remained, enjoying the 
Exposition, till June 15, and then, in company with his 
son Frank and his daughter, Mrs. Villard, he went to 
London. During the next two weeks he was the 
recipient of marked attentions from the Duke and 
Duchess of Argyll, and the hitter's mother, the Duch- 
ess of Sutherland, who sent for him to come and see 
her in the sick-chamber to which she was confined by 
what proved to be her last illness. Then followed, on 
June 20th, the great public breakfast held in his 
honor, in St. James's Hall, London. It was a re- 



GARr.ISOX AND HIS TIMES. 353 

markaljle gathering, and one scarcely paralleled. lion. 
John Bright occupied the chair. F. W. Chessou, 
Esq., and Richard Moore, Esq., were the Secretaries. 
The Committee of Arrangements embraced, amon"* 
others, Lord Houghton, Sir Thomas Fowcll Buxton, 
John Bright, M. P., John Stuart Mill, M. P., Tliomas 
Hughes, M. P., T. B. Potter, M. P., Prof. Maurice, 
P. A. Taylor, M. P., Prof. Huxley, Goldwin Smith, 
William Hovvitt, and others not less distinguished. 
Among the guests were Prof. Huxley, Herbert Spen- 
cer, Prof. Maurice, Lady Trevelyan, Victor Schoel- 
cher, and many others of equal distinction ; also a 
considerable body of ladies, some of them from the 
United States, and a large number of ministers of the 
gospel, of various denominations. The American 
Minister, Hon. Charles Francis Adams, sent a note 
alluding to Mr. Garrison's "long and arduous services 
in the cause of philanthropy," and expressing his 
regret that he was unable, from the pressure of impor- 
tant engagements, to be present. Mr. F. H. Morse, 
the American Consul in London, was present, as was 
also the Rev. W. H. Channing. The Comte de Paris 
sent an eloquent letter, in which he said : "Li receiving 
a man whose character honors America, I thank 3'ou, 
sir, for having thought of me, and for having counted 
on my sympathy for all that is great and noble in that 
country, which I have seen in the midst of such a ter- 
rible crisis." 

The first speaker on the occasion was John Bright, 
whose address was pronounced by those accustomed to 
hearinsr him to have been one of the finest efforts of 

o 

his life. It was a most generous tribute, not to Mr. 
Garrison alone, but to American Abolitionists in gen- 
eral. "To Mr. Garrison," he said, "more than to any 
other man this is due ; his is the creation of that opin- 
ion which has made slavery hateful, and which has made 
freedom possible in America. His name is venerated 

45 



354 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

in his own country — venerated where not long ago it 
was a name of obloquy and reproach. His name is 
venerated in this country and in Europe, wheresoever 
Christianity softens the hearts and lessens the sorrows 
of men ; and I venture to say that in time to come, 
near or remote I know not, his name will become the 
herald and the synonym of good to millions of men 
who will dwell on the now almost unknown continent 
of Africa. ... To him it has been given, in a man- 
ner not often permitted to those who do great things of 
this kind, to see the ripe fruit of his vast labors. Over 
a territory large enough to make many realms, he has 
seen hopeless toil supplanted by compensated indus- 
try, and where the bondman dragged his chain, there 
freedom is established forever. We now welcome 
him among us as a friend whom some of us have 
known lono: ; for I have watched his career with no 
common interest, even when I was too young to take 
much part in public affairs ; and I have, kept within 
my heart his name and the names of those who have 
been associated with him in every step which he has 
taken ; and in public debate in the halls of peace, and 
even on the blood-soiled fields of war, my heart has 
always been with those who were the friends of free- 
dom. We welcome him, then, with a cordiality which 
knows no stint and no limits for him and his noble 
associates, both men and women ; and wo venture to 
speak a verdict which, I believe, will be sanctioned by 
all mankind, not only those who live now, but those 
who shall come after, to whom their perseverance and 
their success shall be a lesson and a help in the future 
strusfiifles which remain for men to make. Ono of our 
oldest and greatest poets has furnished me Avith a line 
that well expresses that verdict. Are not AVilliam 
Lloyd Garrison and his fellow-laborers in that world's 
work — are they not 

' On Fame's eternal bead-roll worthy to be filed ' ? " 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 355 

An official aclclress to Mr. Garrison, from the pen of 
Prof. Golclwin Smith, embodying the sentiments and 
feelings of the distinguished company in respect to 
him and his Uibors, was next moved by the Duke of 
Argyll, who, in the performance of this duty, made a 
most eloquent and felicitous speech. After declaring 
that " the cause of negro emancipation in the United 
States of Americat has been the greatest cause which, 
in ancient or modern times, has been pleaded at the 
bar of the moral judgment of mankind," and justify- 
ing the interest felt in it by the people of England, he 
said : " If such be the cause, what are we to say of the 
man and of the services which he has rendered to that 
cause? We honor Mr. Garrison, in the first place, for 
the immense pluck and courage he displayed. ... In 
attacking slavery at its headquarters in the United 
States, he had to encounter the fiercest passions which 
could be roused. That is, indeed a tremendous sea 
which runs upon the surface of the human mind when 
the storms of passion and self-interest run counter to 
the secret currents of conscience and the sense of 
right. Such was the stormy sea on which Mr. Garri- 
son embarked at first — if I may use the simile — al- 
most in a one-oared boat. He stood alone. And so 
in our reception this day we are entitled to think of 
him as representing the increased power and force 
which is exerted in our own times by the moral opin- 
ions of mankind. . . . We can all understand the joy 
of him, who, like our distinguished friend, after years 
of obloquy and oppression, and being denounced as 
the fiinatical supporter of extreme opinions, finds 
himself acknowledged at last by his countrymen and 
the world as the prophet and apostle of a triumphant 
and accepted .cause." 

The official address, prepared by Prof. Goldwin 
Smith, was appropriately phrased, in the true spirit of 
the occasion, and was very warmly endorsed, being 



356 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

seconded hy Earl Russell, who bad privately solicited 
an invitation to tiie breakfast, that he might, as then 
appeared, make the amende honorable, in the most 
public and significant manner, for his unfriendly atti- 
tude toward the United States during the Rebellion. 
He did this in terms most honorable to himself, re- 
ceiving the hearty acknowledgment of the guest of 
the occasion, who upon this point certainly spoke for 
his country. The Earl, in his brief address, avowed 
himself a sincere admirer and warm friend of Mr. 
Garrison, whom he reckoned among the deliverers of 
mankind. 

John Stuart Mill made an exceedingly happy ad- 
dress, in which he enforced some of the lessons of Mr. 
Garrison's career. The first was, "Aim at somethins: 
great ; aim at things which are difficult.*' The second 
was, " If you aim at something noble, and succeed in 
it, you will generally find that you have not succeeded 
in that alone." The mind of America had been eman- 
cipated by the anti-slavery movement. The whole 
intellect of the country had been set thinking about 
the fundamental questions of society and government, 
and fifreat s^ood must be the result. 

The official address having been adopted by a unani- 
mous show of hands, Mr. Garrison rose to reply. He 
was received with an enthusiastic burst of cheering, 
hats and handkerchiefs being waved by nearly all pres- 
ent. His address Avas marked by the speaker's usually 
direct and simple style. He began with offering his 
grateful acknowledgments for this marked expression 
of personal respect and appreciation of his labors in 
the anti-slavery cause, by the formidable array of rank, 
genius, intellect, scholarship, and moral and religious 
Avorth, which he saw before him, and by which he was 
profoundly impressed. He then drew a striking con- 
trast between the encomiums of which he was now the 
subject, and the odium under which he so long rested 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 357 

in his own country for pleading the cause of the slave. 
He always found in America that a shower of brick- 
bats had a remarkably tonic effect, materially strength- 
ening the back-bone. But the shower of compliments 
and applause that had greeted him on this occasion 
Avould have caused his heart to fail him, were it not 
that this generous reception w^as only incidentally 
personal to himself. They were met to celebrate the 
triumph of humanity over its most brutal foes ; to 
rejoice that universal emancipation had at last been 
proclaimed throughout the United States, and to ex- 
press sentiments of good-will toward the American 
Republic. "I must here disclaim," he said, " with all 
sincerity of soul, any special praise for anything that 
I have done. I have simply tried to maintain the 
integrity of my soul before God, and to do my duty. 
I have refused to go with the multitude to do evil. I 
have endeavored to save my country from ruin. I 
have sought to liberate such as were held captive in 
the house of bondaore. But all this I ousrht to have 
done." ... "I made the slave's case from the start, 
and always, my own — thus : Did I want to be a 
slave? No. Did God make me to be a slave? No. 
But I am only a man — only one of the human race ; 
and if hot created to be a slave, then no other human 
being was made for that purpose. My wife and chil- 
dren — dearer to me than my heart's blood — were they 
made for the auction-block ? Never ! And so it was 
all very easily settled here (pointing to his breast). 
I could not help being an uncompromising Aboli- 
tionist." Having shown over what tremendous obsta- 
cles the anti-slavery movement had triumphed, he 
said: "Henceforth, through all coming time, advo- 
cates of justice and friends of reform, be not dis- 
couraged ; for you will and you must succeed, if you 
have a righteous cause. No matter at the outset how 
few may be disposed to rally round the standard you 



358 GARRISON AXD HIS TIMES. 

have raised — if you battle unflinchingly and without 
compromise — if yours be the faith that cannot be 
shaken, because it is linked to the Eternal Throne — 
it is only a question of time when victory shall come to 
reward your toils. Seemingly, no system of iniquity 
was ever more strongly entrenched, or more sure and 
absolute in its sway, than that of American slavery ; 
yet it has perished. 

' In the earthquake God has spoken ; 
He has smitten with his thunder 
The iron walls asunder, 
And the gates of brass are broken.' 

So it has been, so it is, so it ever will be throughout 
the earth, in every conflict for the right." Mr. Garri- 
son spoke of the cause of woman, paying a tribute 
to Lucretia Mott and John Stuart Mill for their advo- 
cacy of that cause ; referred to his visit to Fort Sum- 
ter ; uttered a warm eulogium upon George Thomp- 
son, and returned thanks to other British Abolitionists 
for help given to the cause in America ; and finally 
expressed the pleasure with which he had listened to 
Earl Russell's ingenuous confession of fault in the 
position he took in relation to the slaveholders' Rebel- 
lion. 

George Thompson followed in a most appropriate 
speech, — the last, perhaps, that he ever delivered. 
There were brief addresses, also, by Mr. Stansfeld, 
M. P., Mr. W. Vernon Ilarcourt, Q. C, and by the 
Hon. E. L. Stanley ; after which the proceedings were 
closed with another brief address by the chairman. 

This l)rcakflist struck the key-note for the kingdom, 
and other cities hastened to follow London's example. 
Contrary to any wish or expectation on his part, Mr. 
Garrison found himself compelled to accept a dinner, 
on the Fourth of July, at Manchester ; a supper at 
Newcastle-on-Tyne ; another at Edinburgh, where the 
freedom of the city was conferred upon him, — the 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 359 

only American, except George Peabody, who had ever 
received it ; a breakfast, and later a public meetino-, at 
Glasgow. Then Mr. Garrison, with his son and 
daughter, returned to the Continent to attend the Anti- 
Slavery Conference, to which he had been accredited 
as a delegate by the Freedmen's Aid Commission, of 
which he was one of the vice-presidents. From Paris 
they went to Switzerland, revelling for a time in the 
grand and beautiful scenery of that country. Richard 
D. Webb, of Dublin, was with them there. They 
just touched the edge of Germany, at Frankfort, and 
came back through Belgium, enjoying a day at Brus- 
sels. Mr. Garrison was sorely tried while on the 
Continent by his inability to speak the language and 
converse with the people, and constantly expatiated 
on the need of a universal language for all the nations 
of the earth. 

Two or three weeks more were spent in England 
before returning to America. Birmingham gave^ him 
a breakfast, and honored him by a public meeting. 
At Manchester he attended a grand temperance gath- 
ering, where he had a hearty reception by an audience 
of five thousand people. He had two or three delight- 
ful interviews, meanwhile, with Mazzini ; and, just 
before sailing for home, he was honored with a private 
breakfast by a distinguished merchant of Liverpool, at 
which he met some fifty other guests. 

Ten years later, in 1877, in company with his son 
Frank, Mr. Garrison crossed the Atlantic again, and 
for the last time. His engagements, during his pre- 
vious trip, confined him pretty closely to the large, 
smoky cities, aftbrding him little opportunity for sight- 
seeing. But now, for imperative reasons, and under 
the instructions of his physician, he refused public 
meetings, receptions, and the breakfasts of which the 
English are so fond, and was able to take a great deal 
of recreation amid the lovely rural scenery of England. 



3 GO GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

At Liverpool, on landinsr, lie quietly made the ac- 
quaintance of Mrs. Josephine E. Butler, the lady who 
has labored so persistently to procure the repeal of 
the iniquitous Contagious Diseases acts. He became 
deeply interested in this cause, and bore his emphatic 
teslimon}^ in its favor as he found opportunity. 
Wherever he went, he was received with honor, love, 
and reverence, and found troops of friends wdio lis- 
tened to his Avords with breathless attention and 
interest. And his private discourse was most noble, 
inspiring, and uplifting. Whether he spoke of slavery 
or war, of intemperance or impurity, of the cause of 
w^oman, or the question of non-resistance and the in- 
violability of human life, he enunciated the broad and 
fundamental principles on which are based all rights 
and all duties, and with a clearness and axiomatic force 
that can never be forgotten by those who heard him. 
"For three days," said a very distinguished lady, 
after being with him for that time, " we have heard 
the gospel preached." And one who met him then for 
the hrst time, writing since his death, says : "lie came 
among us like a perfected spirit, bearing testimony." 
The social enjoyment of that visit was very great, as 
he moved about among the lovely and hospitable homes 
which everywhere opened wide their doors to welcome 
him. Delectable days were spent amid the charming 
scenery of Derbyshire ; Oxford, the fine old Univer- 
sity town, was visited ; a rare fortnight was spent in 
London in meeting scores of old friends, and having 
two tender and lonsr-to-be-remembered interviews with 
John Bright. He went to Somersetshire to see Mr. 
Bright's daughter, Mrs. Clark ; visited Bristol, War- 
w^ick and Kenilworth castles, Birmingham, Leeds (to 
take a final leave of George Thompson), Scarborough 
(where Sir PLircourt Johnstone, Bart., M. P., gave 
him a supper), Newcastle-on-Tyne, Edinburgh, and 
Glasgow, and finally took a delightful trip through the 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 361 

Highlands and the English Lake District, "winding up 
with a little run into Wales. After twelve weeks of 
unalloyed enjoyment, he turned his face homeward. 
As he parted with dear friends, one after another, ho 
said, tenderly, as if feeling that he should never see 
them again in this life, "If we do not meet again in 
this world, we surely shall in a better." 

American Abolitionists will linger with pride and 
delight over the record of the honors bestowed upon 
their beloved and venerated leader by the good and 
great of the Old World, reading therein the verdict of 
posterity, and thanking God that they w^ere permitted 
to bear a part in the great struggle which his illustrious 
name will forever recall. One thought impresses 
itself upon my own mind whenever I look at this 
record. Mr. Garrison, in the course of his visits to 
Great Britain, spoke many times to great audiences, 
embracing all classes of the people, from the nobility 
to the toilers for their daily bread. He was heard by 
Churchmen and Dissenters, by eminent ministers and 
laymen of all denominations, by statesmen of every 
party and philanthropists of every school. On these 
occasions he spoke just as he was in the bnhit of speak- 
ing at home, never suppressing a UulIi which be 
thought should be uttered, or withholding an cpithijfc 
w^hich he thought needful to characterize slavery 
or the conduct of its champions and apologists. 
And yet it seems never to have occurred to his British 
hearers that he was a man of a bitter spirit, or that his 
language was " harsh and vituperative." They thought 
his vocabulary exactly suited to awaken in the minds 
of Christian and humane men just feelings toward 
slavery and slaveholders, and heard him ahvays with 
delight, as a man under the sway of the noblest con- 
victions and purposes that could animate the human 
soul. If any one chooses to compare the unbounded 
sympathy of Mr. Garrison's English audiences with 

IS 



362 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

the carpins: and grumbling of those which he sometimes 
addressed at home, and to seek for the cause of the 
ditference, he has only to remember that England had 
no slaves, no slaveholders, and no apologists for 
slavery ; while in almost every American audience 
there were always some, oftentimes many, Avho, if not 
consciously pro-slavery themselves, were yet sensitive 
to epithets which they thought might hit some kins- 
man, friend or acquaintance, whose reputation they 
were concerned to defend. But the faithful champion 
of the slave could not consent to tip his arrow with 
w^ax and draw his bow with only an infant's strength, 
lest some apologist for oppression should be hurt. 



GAKRISON AND HIS TIMES. 363 



xxn. 

Mr. Garrison's Religious Opinions — Changes in Them — No Dis- 
turbance of the Foundations — The Charge of Infidelity — Mr. 
Garrison in Self-Defence — His Orthodoxy — His Christian 
Spirit — Purifying Effects of the Anti-Slavery Movement — 
Moral Influence of the Anti-Slavery Papers — Faith in Free 
Discussion — Spiritualism. 

I Alvi not aware that Mr. Garrison ever made any 
systematic statement of his religious opinions. His 
mind was too much absorbed in the application of 
moral principles to the conduct of life to permit him 
to pay much attention to the theological speculations 
which are so fascinating to many. Those words of the 
Master, ''Seek jq first the kingdom of God, and his 
RIGHTEOUSNESS," sccm to have been alwaj^s in his 
mind and heart as a rule of life. He was Orthodox at \ 
first by inheritance and through the influence of his 
noble Baptist mother ; and he would perhaps have 
remained so to the end of life, if the attitude of the 
ministers and churches upon the slavery question had 
not forced him to investigate certain points which he 
had supposed were settled beyond controversy. The 
first of these was the Sabbath question. He was a 
very strict Sabbatarian in early life, but he thought it 
eminently proper, in accordance with Christ's humane 
example, to plead the cause of the enslaved on the 
Sabbath day. When the pro-slavery clergy availed 
themselves of the popular superstition to prevent anti- 
slavery lecturers from gaining a hearing upon that 
day, he was set to thinking and reading upon the 
subject, and the result was a conviction that the views 



3G4 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

of the Friends in relation to Sunday Avere sound and 
scriptural. When the great lights of the American 
Church — Stuart, Hodge, Fisk and others — boldly 
asserted that the Bible sanctioned slaveholding, he 
■was naturall}' led to consider the question of the 
inspiration of that book, and its authority over the 
consciences of men. His investigations resulted in the 
conviction that on this subject also the Friends were 
substantially right ; that the revelation of God in man 
was older and more authoritative than that inscribed 
upon any parchment, however ancient, or by whatever 
miracles authenticated ; and that if, as Stuart and 
other professors of theology affirmed, the Bible sanc- 
tioned slavery, then the passages containing such 
sanction could not be from God, but must be from the 
devil. His mind thenceforth became settled in such 
views of inspiration as are now quite common in 
Orthodox pulpits. In early life he reverenced the 
Church and the Ministry ; but when the effort was 
made to strangle the anti-slavery movement by their 
authority, alleged to be derived directly from Heaven, 
and therefore binding upon men, he was set upon 
another course of investigation, and was not long in 
coming to the conclusion that- this claim of authority 
was neither reasonable nor scriptural, but in its 
nature superstitious and hurtful ; that churches, no 
more than anti-slavery societies, had any organic rela- 
tions with God, and that preachers, no more than anti- 
slavery lecturers, were commissioned by Him. 

These changes of opinion, however, worked not the 
least disturbance of his faith in God, and in those 
principles of righteousness, justice and truth which are 
the foundation of his throne. On the contrary, his 
faith was clarified and confirmed, as any one may see 
who studies his later writings. The questions raised 
by modern scientific investigation had no terrors for 
him. He believed in the spiritual nature of man, in 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 365 

the presence of God in the human soul, dissuading 
from sin and kindling aspirations for purity and holi- 
ness of life ; and he was no more afraid that this faith 
would die out of the heart of man than he was that the 
sun would cease to shine, or that the law of gravitation 
would break down and the universe be thrown into 
chaos. The Bible w^as to him still "the Book of 
books," not by virtue of any theory concerning its 
authorship as a whole or in its several parts, but on 
account of the primordial truths that illuminate its 
pages, and that wall forever authenticate themselves to 
the minds and hearts of men. He did not think the 
injunction to love God and man, and to do unto others 
what we wish them to do unto us, could derive any 
additional weight or authority from the most brilliant 
display of fireworks, or even from any miraculous 
manifestation whatever. He read the Bible more dili- 
gently than any other book, and let its grand truths 
search him through and through, and feed him as with 
the bread of eternal life, careless of all the fine-spun 
theories of the theological schools. "I have lost," he 
said, " my traditional and educational notions of the 
holiness of the Bible ; but I have gained greatly, I 
think, in my estimation of it. As a divine booiv, I 
never could understand it ; as a human composition, I 
can fathom it to the bottom. Whosoever receives it as 
his master will necessarily be in bondage to it ; but he 
who makes it his servant, under the guidance of truth, 
will find it truly serviceable. It must be examined, 
criticised, accepted or rejected, like any other book, 
without fear and without favor. Whatever excellence 
there is in it will be fire-proof ; and if any portion of 
it be obsolete or spurious, let that portion be treated 
accordingly I am fully aware how griev- 
ously the priesthood have perverted the Bible, and 
wielded it both as an instrument of spiritual despotism, 
and in opposition to the sacred cause of humanity. 



366 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

Still, to no other volume do I turn with so much in- 
terest ; no other do I consult or refer to so frequently ; 
to no other am I so indebted for light and strength ; 
no other is so identified with the growth of human 
freedom and progress ; no other have I appealed to so 
effectively in aid of the various reformatory move- 
ments which I have espoused ; and it embodies an 
amount of excellence so great as to make it, in my 
estimation, the book of books." 

For a whole generation Mr. Garrison was de- 
nounced by the pro-slavery ministry and church as 
an infidel. It was so much easier to hurl that epithet 
at his head than to answer his arguments against slav- 
ery ! Some professed Abolitionists, in order to pro- 
pitiate their pro-slavery brethren, joined in circulating 
this calumny. The New York " Independent," on one 
occasion, stigmatized him as "an infidel of the most 
degraded sort ; " and the reluctant apology it after- 
wards made for the outrage did not by an}'- means 
indicate the presence of that "godly sorrow" that 
" worketh repentance to salvation." If the men who 
are so fond of applying the epithet infidel to those 
who dare to do their own thinking are not careful, 
they will shortly succeed in changing the word from a 
term of obloquy to one of honor. Indeed, it has 
almost come to this already. Wendell Phillips once 
said, iu Faneuil Hall, that he only wished two words 
written on his tombstone — " Infidel aud Traitor : In- 
fidel to a Church that could be at peace in the presence 
of sin ; Traitor to a Government that was a magnificent 
conspiracy against justice." But in truth, nothing could 
be more unjust and preposterous than the application of 
the term infidel to a man like Garrison. There are men 
in the church, and even in the pulpit, who see and 
acknowledge this. Several years since, a clergyman, 
bearing a name of great eminence throughout the Chris- 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 367 

tian world, said to me, in substance: "I should not 
dare to call Mr. Garrison an infidel, for fear of bringing 
Christianity itself into reproach. For, if a man can 
live such a life as he has lived and do what he has 
done — if he can stand up for God's law of purity and 
justice in the face of a frowning world, and when even 
the professed ministers of Christ are recreant — if he 
can devote himself to the redemption of an outraged 
and plundered race and be pelted with the vilest 
epithets for a whole generation, without flinching or 
faltering, and yet be an infidel, men may well ask 
what is the value of Christianity? No, no; I must 
believe that Mr. Garrison is a Christian, who has his 
w^alk with God, or he never could have had strength 
and courage to go through the fiery trials to which he 
has been exposed." It is due to Mr. Garrison to let 
him speak for himself upon this point. On one occa- 
sion, replying (in 1841) to a most virulent attack made 
upon him, in a letter to England, by an American 
clergyman, one of the secedeis from the American 
Anti-Slavery Society, he said : — 



" I am as strongly opposed to infidelity as I am to priest- 
craft and slaver3\ My religious sentiments (excepting as 
they relate to certain outward forms and observances, and 
respecting these I entertain the views of Frien<ls), are as 
rigid and uncompromising as those promulgated by Christ 
himself. The standard which he has erected is one that I 
reverence and advocate. In a true estimate of the Divine 
authorit}^ of the Scriptures no one can go beyond me. They 
are my text-book, and worth all the other books in the uni- 
verse. M}' trust is in God, my aim to walk in the footsteps 
of his Son, my rejoicing to be crucified to the world, and the 
world to me. ... I stand upon the Cible, and the Bible 
alone, in regard to my views of the Sabba'h, the church, 
and the ministiy. If I cannot stand triumphantly on that 
foundation, I can stand nowhere in the universe." 



368 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

Ten years later, replying to a similar attack, from 
another quarter, he said : — 

'' I claim to be a Christian : wh}' do you persist in repre- 
senting me as an infidel? I am a lover of Christian institu- 
tions ; why do 3'ou accuse me of seeking their overthrow? 
I have engaged in no reform, I have promulgated no doc- 
trines, which I have not vindicated % an appeal to the 
Bible — an appeal more frequent than to all other books in 
the world beside ; why do you insist that mj' religious views 
are not in harmony with Divine revelation ? " 

He adds : — 

*' Technically I think very little of the Christian name or 
profession at the present day ; it has long since ceased to 
be odious — it has become reputable and popular. Eigh- 
teen hundred 3'ears ago it was a badge of infam3% and deci- 
sive evidence of heresj', and cost those who assumed it rep- 
utation, ease, wealth, personal safety and life itself. Then 
it was a test of character ; now it is a fashionable appen- 
dage." 

The same charge of infidelity was brouglit against the 
anti-slavery movement as led by Mr. Garrison, though 
no one ever heard an infidel sentiment uttered on its 
platform. True, the ministry and church were arraigned 
and condemned ; but they were always criticised by a 
Christian standard, and condemned because they were 
false to Christ. The Abolitionists made a broad dis- 
crimination between the Church of Christ and the pro- 
slavery churches of the United States. They rever- 
enced the former, they denounced and repudiated the 
latter. They discriminated also between Ohn'sfiimity 
and churd/iixmiy , between piety and "jiiosity," between 
sincerity and cant. When they saw on the one hand 
the slave clanking his chains, and on the other the 
great body of the church and clergy indifferent to his 
wrongs, full of sympathy for the master, and pleading 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 369 

for slavery in the name of Christ and the Bible, they 
did not mince their Avords, but said with heart and lip, 
" Oat upon such pretenders ! their professions of 
Christianity are a mockery — their use of the name of 
Chri.st to sanction ^robbery and crime and blood,' a 
hideous blasphemy ! " And of this they will repent 
when it can be shown that it is a sin to call things by 
their riirht names. 

As to the infidelity of the anti-slavery movement, 
let Mr. Garrison himself speak : — 

" If abolitionism be an infidel movement, it is so only in 
the same sense in which Jesus was a blasphemer, and the 
apostles were ' pestilent and seditious fellows, seeking to 
turn the world upside down/ It is infidel to Satan, the 
enslaver ; it is lo3'al to Christ, the redeemer. It is infidel 
to a gospel which makes man the property of man ; it is 
bound up with the Gospel which requires us to love our 
neighbor as ourselves, and to call no man master. It is 
infidel to a Church which receives to its communion the 
' traffickers in slaves and souls of men ' ; it is lo3'al to the 
Church which is not stained with blood, nor polluted by 
oppression. It is infidel to the Bible, interpreted as a pro- 
slavery volume ; it is faithful to it as construed on the side of 
justice and humanit}'. It is infidel to a Sabbath, on which it 
is h3'pocritically pronounced unlawful to extricate the mil- 
lions who lie bound and bleeding in the pit of slavery ; it is 
true to the Sabbath on which it is well-pleasing to God to 
bind up the broken-hearted and to let the oppressed go free. 
It is infidel to all blood-stained compromises, sinful conces- 
sions, unholy compacts, respecting the S3"stem of slavery ; 
it is devotedly attached to whatever is honest, straight- for- 
ward, invincible for the right. No reformatory struggle has 
ever erected a higher moral standard, or more disinterestedly 
pursued its object, or more unfalteringl}' walked b^" faith, or 
more confidingly trusted in the living God for succor in 
every extremity, and for a glorious victory at last. At 
the jubilee its vindication shall be triumphant and uni- 
versal." 

47 



370 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

If Jesus may be presumed to have understood and 
taught his own religion, and if he was right when he 
dechired that all the law and the prophets Avere summed 
up in the two connnandments which require us to 
love God with all our hearts, and our neighbor as our- 
selves, then Mr. Garrison was as Orthodox a Christian, 
both intheorj^and practice, as ever lived in this world. 
Moreover, if to accept Christ as a leader and guide, 
to imbibe his spirit and follow in his steps, at what- 
ever cost or hazard, is to entitle one's self to the name 
of Christian, then there are few men to whom that 
name may be more appropriately applied than to him. 
His writings, open them where we may, throb with 
Christian vitality. His doctrine of non-resistance, 
which has been so much caricatured and ridiculed, and 
on account of which some narrow-minded bigots 
thought him unworthy to be a member of the anti- 
slavery societies which he himself had created, was 
always presented by him as a Christian doctrine. 
Here is an extract from the Declaration of Sentiments, 
written by him, and adopted by the Peace Convention 
of 1838. See how it breathes the very spirit of 
Christ : — 

" The Prince of Peace, under whose stainless banner we 
rail}', came not to destro}^, but to save, even the worst of 
enemies. He has left us an example, that we should follow 
his steps. ' God commendeth his love toward us, in that 
while we were 3^et sinners, Christ died for us.' . . . We 
advocate no Jacobinical doctrines. The spirit of jacobinism 
is the spirit of retaliation, violence and murder. It neither 
fears God, nor regards man. We would be filled with the 
spirit of Christ. If we abide by our principles, it is impos- 
sible for us to be disorderly, or plot treason, or participate 
in any evil work ; we shall submit to ever}- ordinance of 
man for the Lord's sake ; obey all the requirements of 
government, except such as we deem contrary to the com- 
mands of the gospel ; and in no wise resist the operation of 
law, except by meekly submitting to the penalty of dis- 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 371 

obedience. ... In entering upon the great work before 
us, we ure not unmindful that, in its prosecution, we may 
be called to test our sincerit}' even as in a fiery ordeal. . . . 
We shall not think it strange concerning the fiery trial 
which is to try us, as though some strange thing had hap- 
pened unto us ; but rejoice, inasmuch as we are partakers 
of Christ's sufferings. Wherefore, we commit the keeping 
of our souls to God, as unto a faithful Creator. ' For every 
one that forsakes houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, 
or mother, or wife or children, or lands, for Christ's sake, 
shall receive an hundred-fold, and shall inherit everlasting 
life.'" 

We may well be patient with those who think Mr. 
Garrison misunderstood the teachings of Jesus in re- 
gard to the law of retaliation and self-defence ; but 
how can we feel anything but disgust and indignation 
toward those who coolly assert that this passage and 
others like it embody the spirit of jacobinism and infi- 
delity ? 

I do not hesitate to express my belief that the anti- 
slavery movement, while it continued, did more than 
anything else to elevate the tone and purify the char- 
acter of American Christianity. It was not without 
its good influences upon the sects that hated it most. 
It set before them a standard of morals higher than 
their own, and sometimes brought blushes to the 
cheeks of men who affected to despise it. It emanci- 
l^ated thousands from the bondage of sectarianism, and 
taught them that Christianity does not consist in con- 
formity to a creed, or in the observance of forms, but 
in purity of life and devotion to the welfare of man- 
kind. It broke the shackles of superstition from a 
vast multitude of people ; and if a few, in the revul- 
sion from detected shams, were swept away from the 
solid ground of truth, a much greater number were 
quickened to a new and higher spiritual life. The 
ant i- slavery meetings were distinguished for their 



372 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

earnest and healthful religious tone, and the anti- 
slavery papers, appealing as they did at all times to 
what was best and noblest in their readers, exerted a 
wholesome influence. I believe that the young men 
and women, who grew up in households where one or 
more of these papers was a part of the family reading, 
and where the questions they presented were topics of 
daily discourse, will, as a rule, be found to be excep- 
tionally high-toned in their views and habits. " It is a 
dictate of reason," as Mr. Garrison says, " that what- 
ever enlarges the spirit of human sympathy, opposes 
tyranny in every form, inculcates love and good-will to 
mankind, and seeks to reconcile a hostile world, must 
be in consonance Avith the Divine Mind." I believe 
there does not live a single reader of " The Liber- 
ator," who will not gratefully bear testimony to the 
truth of every word contained in the following para- 
graph from the now sainted editor's pen : — 

" In the long, dark struggle with national injustice 
through which I have been called to pass, I have been 
cheered and strengthened by the knowledge of the reforma- 
tory change which has taken place in the sentiments of 
thousands through the instrumentalit}^ of ' The Liberator.* 
To this they gratefully testify : that it has given them more 
exalted views of God, a more just appreciation of man, a 
truer conception of Christianity ; that it has emancipated 
them from the bondage of party and sect, dispelled from 
their minds the mists of superstition, and made them coura- 
geous in the investigation of truth ; that it has enlarged the 
limits of their country, and multiplied the number of their 
countrymen, so that they no longer regard geographical 
boundaries, but truly esteem every one as ' a man and a 
brother,' whether he be near or remote ; that, instead of 
lowering the standard of moral obligation, or lessening the 
sphere of human dut}^, it has quickened their moral sense, 
and given unlimited scope to their S3'mpathies, and supplied 
them with more objects of benevolent concern than they can 
rcadih' discharge. This testimony has been borne b}- its 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 373 

patrons on both sides of the Atlantic. Among those 
patrons are some of the best intellects, the pnrest spirits, 
the most devoted Christians, to be found in Europe or 
America." 

Clarkson, at the close of his "History of the Slave 
Trade," has this striking passage respecting the great 
conflict in which he was so lono: eno^acred, which is 
equally true of the anti-slavery movement in Amer- 
ica : — 

" It [the conflict] has been useful, also, in the discrimina- ^' 
tion of moral character. In private life, it has enabled us ] 
to distinguish the virtuous from the more vicious part of th3 j 
communit3% I have had occasion to know many thousand 
persons in the course of my travels on this subject, and I 
can truly say that the part which these took on this great 
question was always a true criterion of their moral character. 
It has shown the general philanthropist. It has unmasked 
the vicious in spite of his pretension to virtue. It has sepa- 
rated the moral statesman from the wicked politician. It 
has shown us who, in the legislative and executive offices of 
our countr}', are fit to save, and who to destroy a nation." 

A most strikinsr confirmation of these words of 
Clarkson, in their application to the anti-slavery 
movement in America, will be found in this extract 
from "The Savannah Georgian," uttered in 1853 : — 

'•Were the votaries of abolition base and unprincipled, 
low and degraded, we should have little to fear from their 
hostilit}'. But this is not the fact. The strongholds of 
abolition are not the cities, with the vice which generality 
characterizes the cities ; thej^ are tbe rural districts, with 
their sober, serious, moral and religious population. North- 
ern abolition mobs are usuall}' composed of the rabble of the 
towns and cities. Find a community in the free States 
remarkable for quiet decorum, industrious habits, and re- 
ligious devotion, and the probability is that there will be 
found, not perhaps anti-slaver}' clamor, but anti-slavery 
feeling in its worst and deepest intensity. These are the 
men who hate slaver}- because they believe it sinful." 



374 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

Was it not cruel in this Southern paper thus to 
remind the pro-slavery divines of the North, who had 
done so much to bolster up the system of slavery, that 
they had their allies, not in the intelligent, God-fearing 
classes in the rural districts, but in " the rabble of the 
towns and cities," the "base, unprincipled, low and 
degraded," who haunted the dens of vice and crime? 
But, if men will serve the devil, they should be con- 
tent with their wages ! 

Mr. Garrison revealed the nobility of his character 
and his entire confidence in the principles he held, in 
the fairness with which he treated opponents and 
critics in his own columns. He always gave them a 
full hearing, often permitting them to use twice the 
space that he claimed for himself. In turning over 
the files of " The Liberator," one is reminded continu- 
ally of this fact. He believed in free discussion with 
all his heart, and never shrank from the scalpel of the 
critic. He often allowed himself to be roundly abused 
in his paper without oflering a word of reply. That 
he sometimes, in the heat of the struggle, misjudged 
the motives of men, and so did them injustice, is 
probably true. That, owing to the strength of his 
moral convictions, and his intolerance of anything that 
looked like a dereliction of principle, his tone was 
sometimes imperious and irritating to men who were 
sensitive under criticism from a man so eminent, will 
be admitted by his best friends. He did not always 
make due allowance for the moral obtuseness that falls 
short of guilt, and that confusion of the intellect which 
is compatible with sincerity. But there was not in his 
heart the least shadow of ill-will, or of a desire to 
wound. He struck hard blows, and expected to take 
them in return. No heart was ever more generous 
than his, more ready to forgive an injury, or quicker 
to pardon a momentary weakness. The cause of the 
slave was to him as the apple of his eye ; any appear- 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 3'i5 

ance of treachery to that, however disguised, was sure 
to kindle his indignation. As to his treatment of 
opponents, he shall speak for himself: — 

"Before ' The Liberator ' was established, I doubt whether, 
on either side of the Atlantic, there existed a newspaper or 
periodical that admitted its opponents to be freely and im- 
partiallj^ heard through its columns — as freely as its friends. 
Without boasting, I claim to have set an example of fairness 
and magnanimity, in this respect, such as had never been 
set before ; cheerfully conceding to those who were hostile 
to my views on any subject discussed in ' The Liberator,' 
not only as much space as I, or as others agreeing with me, 
might occupy, but even more, if they desired it. From this 
course I have never deviated. Na}', more ; I have not 
waited for opponents to send in their original contributions, 
but, in the absence of these, have constantlj^ transferred their 
articles, published in other periodicals, to my own paper, 
without prompting from any quarter." 

His faith in free discussion is illustrated in passages 
such as this : — 

"Let, then, the mind, and tongue, and press, be free. 
Let free discussion not only be tolerated, but encouraged 
and asserted, as indispensable to the freedom and \velfarv3 of 
mankind. ... If I give my children no other precept 
— if I leave them no other example — it shall be a fearless, 
impartial, thorough investigation of every subject to which 
their attention may be called, and a hearty adoption of the 
principles which to them may seem true, whether those prin- 
ciples agree or conflict with my own, or with those of any 
other person. The best protection which I can give them is 
to secure the unrestricted exercise of their reason, and to 
inspire them with true self-reliance. I will not arbitrarily 
determine for them what are orthodox or what heretical sen- 
timents. I have no wish, no right, no authority to do so. 
I desire them to see, hear and weigh, both sides of every 
question. For example : — I wish them to examine what- 
ever may be advanced in opposition to the doctrine of the 
divine inspiration of the Bible, as freely as thpy do whatever 



376 GARRISON AND HTS TIMES. 

the}' find in support of it ; to hear what may be urged against 
the doctrines, precepts, miracles, or life of Jesus, as readily 
as they do anything in their defence ; to see what arguments 
are adduced for a belief in the non-existence of God, as un- 
reservedly as they do the evidence in favor of his existence. 
I shall teach them to regard no subject as too holy for ex- 
amination ; to make their own convictions paramount to all 
human authority ; to reject whatever conflicts with their 
reason, no matter by whomsoever enforced ; and to prefer 
that which is clearly demonstrative to mere theory." 

It is almost needless to say that he was hospitable to 
new thoughts and facts, from whatever quarter they 
might come, and if they commended themselves to 
him, upon examination, as true, he never lacked the 
courage to avow his faith, regardless of the ridicule or 
the reproaches of men. An illustration of this is found 
in his treatment of the subject of modern Spiritualism. 
Havinsr ^iven much time to an iuvestis^ation of the 
phenomena pertaining to the question, and being 
thoroughly satisfied that he had received many com- 
munications from friends in the spirit-world, he did 
not hesitate to incur the odium involved in a frank 
avowal and defence of his opinion. To no question 
that concerned the progress of the human race in 
knowledge, virtue and freedom, was he indifferent. 
He was patient even with the great procession of bores 
who were forever invokinsr his attention to their crude 
and ill-digested schemes, and who consumed much 
time that he would gladly have reserved for some more 
useful purpose. Called a fool and a fanatic himself, 
every clay of his life, he had great tenderness for 
weak, well-meaning people, who were victims of the 
world's indifference or scorn. 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 377 



xxm. 

Subjects Omitted — The Absorbing Issue in Politics — The Moral 
Agitation More Inteuse than Ever — The Fugitive Slave Law — 
Webster's Apostasy — Trial of Castner Hauway — Auuiversary 
of the American Anti-Slavery Society Invaded by a Mob — Driven 
from New York for Two Years — A Flying Leap — Lincoln's 
Administration — His Re-election — Mr. Garrison's Attitude — 
Visit to Charleston — Scenes and Incidents — Withdrawal from 
the^ American Anti-Slavery Society — Close of " The Liberator." 

As I approach the end of my work, I am dismayed 
in glancing at the list of topics, pertaining to the later 
period of the anti-slavery movement, on which I have 
not space to say even a word. The expulsion of Mr. 
Hoar from Charleston ; the war with Mexico in the in- 
terest of slavery extension ; the annexation of Cali- 
fornia ; the defeat of the attempt to establish slavery 
on the Pacific coast ; the compromises of 1850, includ- 
ing the infamous Fugitive Slave law, and the apostasy 
of Webster ; the slave-catching era, its excitements 
and convulsions, in Boston, Syracuse, Christiana, and 
elsewhere ; the trial of Castner Hanway for treason ; 
the publication of "Uncle Tom's Cabin," by Harriet 
Beechcr Stowe, and its wonderful effects in creating 
sympathy for the slaves ; the appearance of Kichard 
Hildreth's "White Slave," a most powerful delineation 
of the workings of slavery ; the repeal of the Missouri 
Compromise, and the desperate attempt to force slavery 
into Kansas ; the Dred Scott decision ; the John Brown 
raid, its incidents and consequences ; the first election 
of Abraham Lincoln to the Presidency ; the attempt 
to avert secession and war by fresh compromises ; the 

48 



378 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

attack upon Fort Sumter, and the grand uprising of 
the North ; the futile attempts to put down the Kebel- 
lion Avithout destroying slavery ; the war, with its 
ups and down ; the Decree of Emancipation ; the en- 
listment of negro soldiers ; the re-election of Lincoln 
in 1864 ; the final surrender at Appomattox ; the 
assassination of Lincoln ; the process of reconstruc- 
tion ; the " Underground Eailroad," in all its wide 
ramifications, affording means of escape to thousands 
of slaves, whose adventures were of the most thrilling 
character ; the trials and sufierings of men who aided 
the fugitives in their flight, — these are some of the 
sul)jects from which it is hard to turn away, but for 
the adequate treatment of which another volume is 
required. 

While it is true that the slavery question, during 
the period referred to above, was the all-absorbing 
issue in politics, so that every successive election 
hinged upon it, and the question was thereby forced 
into every household in the land, it would be a great 
mistake to suppose that the moral agitation was 
either superseded or thrown into the shade. On the 
contrary, the anti-slavery societies, if we except a 
portion of the time during the war, w^ere never more 
active ; the anti-slavery papers — " The Liberator," "The 
Standard," etc. — were never more extensively circu- 
lated, or more weighty in their utterances; the anti- 
slavery speakers were never heard by larger or more 
deeply interested crowds. Mr. Garrison was in con- 
stant request at widely distant points ; the words of 
Phdlips echoed throughout the land, criticising, rebuk- 
ing, inspiring ; and Theodore Parker, until death tore 
him from our side, not only thundered weekly in Music 
Ila 11, but from the lecture-platform in many States ; 
and our faithful au^ents were never more indcfatis^able 
in the prosecution of their work. Anniversaries and 
conventions were points of intense interest ; being 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 379 

Wcatehed by the politicians as the mariner watches for 
the l)eacon on a stormy night. Massachusetts was thor- 
oughly excited and roused. The most thoughtful and 
serious of the Republicans, who felt how critical was 
the condition of the country, and who trembled lest 
their party should shirk the issue, or fail to understand 
its import, looked to the moral agitators, whom the 
politicians could not silence, to j^oint out the way of 
safety and success. If Northern Senators and Repre- 
sentatives in Congress withstood the slaveholders face 
to face in hot debate, and resisted them by every con- 
stitutional means ; and if soldiers on the battle-lield 
gave up their lives that the slave might go free ; it is 
none the less true that neither in legislative halls nor 
on the field of bloody strife could the contest have 
been carried to a successful issue without the moral 
influences out of which it originally grew, and from 
which its inspiration was constantly derived. That 
these influences came more or less directly from the 
aofitation of which Garrison was the recoo^nized leader, 
there can be no doubt. 

It is not too much to say that there were moments 
in the struggle when, if the moral agitation had ceased, 
and Garrison and his friends retired from their work, 
the North would have faltered and turned back, and 
the Slave Power would have held the country more 
firmly than ever in its grasp. Those who remember 
the dark days of 1850, when, by a combination of the 
Democratic and Whig parties, a last great efibrt was 
made to efiect "a final settlement" of the slavery 
question, by giving the South substantially all that 
she demanded, and to put the anti-slavery agitation 
down by a tremendous display of public sentiment 
and governmental authority, will not need to be re- 
minded how dismal, for a time, was the prospect. 
Fusritive slaves were hunted in cities and towns on 
every hand, and ruthlessly dragged back into bondage 



380 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

by the power of the National Government. The court- 
house in Boston was girded with chains, and official 
kidnappers, by the aid of the military, marched their 
victim down State Street, over ground hallowed by 
patriot blood, and in the presence of an indignant but 
helpless crowd. It was a question for some time 
whether the apostate Webster w^ould not drag New 
England down after him into the pit of infamy to 
which he had himself descended. Boston, surprised 
and indignant at first in view of his defection, had 
been won to his side ; Andover Theological Seminary, 
which for twenty years had interpreted the Bible in 
the interest of the men-stealers, now made haste to 
commend him, and to scofi' at the idea that Conscience 
had any right to sit in judgment upon " iniquity 
framed by law" and sanctioned by the Constitution. 
Then it was that thirty ministers of the Methodist 
church made a pious pilgrimage to Marshficld, to con- 
gratulate Mr. Webster upon his success in making the 
land of the Pilsrrims a huntin2:-2:round for slaves. 
And then it was, thank God ! that Garrison and his 
brave comrades, unterrified, unseduced, lifted up a 
voice of power that rang out over the hills and through 
the vales of New England, summoning the friends of 
freedom to the rescue, and bidding: them be of ffood 
cheer, for God was still God, and the Throne of Ini- 
quity could not prosper. To that summons New Eng- 
land responded, and not New England alone, but the 
JNIiddle States and the prairies of the West, and the 
Republic was saved ! 

The Fugitive Slave law, and the decision of the 
Supreme Court in the Dred Scott case, virtually 
declaring that the negroes of the country had " no 
rights which a white man was bound to respect," — 
measures which it was supposed by their inventors 
would utterly crush the anti-slavery movement, — only 
added fuel to the flame that was so hot before. They 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 381 

supplied Mr. Garrison and his friends with fresh argu- 
ments, and kindled in the hearts of thousands a deep 
hatred of the Union that bore such accursed fruit. 
The fn-st of these measures begat a spirit of resistance 
with which the minions of slavery found themselves 
unable to cope. Daniel Webster, in the hope of 
striking terror to the hearts of Abolitionists, set up 
the doctrine that resistance to the slave-catchiug statute 
was treason against the United States, and punishable 
with death; but the effort to enforce this dictum in 
the trial of Castner Hanway covered the great "ex- 
pounder" with universal ridicule. 

These days brought great trial and suffering to 
many. The mob spirit was revived in not a few 
places. In 1850, the anniversary of the American 
Anti-Slavery Society, in New York, was invaded by a 
band of ruffians, with Isaiah Eynders at their head. 
His efforts, however, to break up the anniversary 
failed. The scene was in a high degree dramatic and 
amusing. Mr. Garrison's coohiess and tact as chair- 
man completely baffled the disturbers. Frederick 
Douglass distinguished himself on this occasion, as on 
many others, by his wit and eloquence. A subsequent 
meeting of the society for business was, however, 
broken up by the same crew, the authorities of the 
city conniving at the outrage. In 1851 and 1852, the 
society w^as unable to secure the use of any church or 
hall in New York, and its meetings were consequently 
held in Eochester and Syracuse, successively. In 
1853 public sentiment had changed so that there was no 
longer any fear of disturbance, and the society returned 
to New York. It should be mentioned that, immedi- 
ately after the Eynders mob of 1850, Mr. Phillips was 
invited to speak in Plymouth Church, in Brooklyn, the 
pastor appearing on the platform to vindicate freedom of 
speech, and the city authorities protecting the meeting. 

But I must take a flying leap from this point to the 



382 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

closing days of the struggle. During the first two 
years of the war, Mr. Garrison, in common with all 
other friends of freedom, was exceedingly impatient 
with what seemed to be the uncertain, shilly-shally 
policy of President Lincoln. If they could have 
known all that was passing in his mind, and how fixed 
was his determination to free the slaves the instant 
that he believed he could do so rightfully, and with 
the certainty that the Northern people would stand by 
him, I have no doubt their patience would have been 
equal to the crisis ; but they had seen so many men in 
high station falter and fail, that they were in constant 
terror lest he should be tempted to take some fatal 
step. He seemed to them like a turtle for slowness, 
and they piled hot coals upon his back to quicken 
his movements. But, when at last he issued his 
Proclamation of Emancipation and committed himself 
fully to the work of exterminating slavery, Mr. Gar- 
rison distrusted him no longer, and took the most 
charitable view of such of his acts as he could not 
wholly approve. When combinations were formed to 
prevent his renomination in 1864, Mr. Garrison gave 
them no countenance, believing that his re-election 
was absolutely necessary to keep the North united, 
and to defeat the schemes of those who were in sym- 
pathy with the Rebellion. Mr. Lincoln set a high 
value upon Mr. Garrison's support, not only as a 
tribute to his own fidelity, but on account of his great 
influence among the honest enemies of slavery of 
every class ; and, when the arrangements were made 
to raise again the Flag of the Union on the walls of 
Fort Sumter, Mr. Garrison was invited, as a guest of 
the Government, to witness the imposing spectacle, 
and informed that his son, George Thompson Gar- 
rison, then an officer in the Fifty-fifth Massachusetts 
(colored) Regiment in South Carolina, would be fur- 
loughed in order that he might meet him there. At 




EMANCIPATION GROUP. 

PRESENTED TO THE CITY OF BOSTON, 

By HON. MOSES KIMBALL. 

Dedicated Dec. 6, 1879. 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 383 

the suggestion of the Hon. Ilenvy Wilson, a similar 
invitation was extended to the Hon. George Thomp- 
son, the English champion of emancipation, who was 
then in the country. It was a most happy circum- 
stance that these two men, so long and so intimately 
associated in the cause of the slave, and who had 
endured together the fiercest iDcrsecutlon from the 
minions of slaver}^ were permitted to mingle their 
exultations in this grand celebration. The company, 
including the orator of the occasion, the Rev. Henry 
Ward Beecher, w^ent from New York to Charleston in 
the United States steamer "Arago." Mr. Thompson, 
in a note written on board the steamer as she was 
leaving the harbor, said : " In former years, the ques- 
tion was often put to me, ^ Why don't you go to the 
South ? ' To-day I answer, ' I am going ; going to 
celebrate the triumph of Garrisonian abolitionism in 
Charleston; going in company with Garrison him- 
self.' " 

Mr. Garrison's arrival in Charleston created a great 
stir anions: the freedmen, who thronired the streets, 
rending the air with their shouts, or singing their songs 
of triumph, whenever he made his appearance. The 
flag-raising at the fort on Friday, April 14, was a scene 
of deepest interest, which cannot be described here. 
On the following day, meetings of the freedmen to do 
honor to Mr. Garrison, Mr. Thompson, and other dis- 
tinguished friends of emancipation, were held in "Citadel 
Square," and "Zion's Church." At an early hour the 
colored people began to assemble in the square. The 
colored children from the public schools met at the 
school-houses and marched to the meeting in procession, 
led by Superintendent Kedpath. AVhile waiting for the 
speakers to arrive, the crowd w^as addressed by Major 
Delaney (colored) of Gen. Saxton's staff. The arrival 
of Mr. Garrison was announced by the surging and 
cheering of the vast crowd, whose enthusiasm was 



384 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

irrepressible. Cheering did not sufficiently express 
their joy ; they pressed toward the great leader of the 
anti-slavery cause, and bore him on their shoulders to 
the speaker's stand. Senator Wilson, being unable to 
speak in the open air, it was concluded to adjourn the 
meetinsr to "Zion's Church." Three thousand freed- 
men were packed within the walls of that edifice. Mr. 
Garrison, Mr. Thompson, the Hon. Henry Wilson, the 
Rev. Joshua Leavitt, D.D., Judge Kelly of Pennsyl- 
vania and others, crowded the platform, while a large 
number of officers of the army and navy, and a number 
of ladies, occupied the space in front. Then followed 
a scene which angels and men might contemplate with 
equal satisfaction. Samuel Dickerson, one of the men 
whose shackles were broken by Lincoln's proclama- 
tion, rose to perform a duty which had been assigned 
to him by his emancipated brethren. Accompanied 
by his two daughters, bearing a beautiful wreath of 
flowers, he advanced to the pulpit, and, addressing 
Mr. Garrison, spoke as follows : — 

Sir — It is with pleasure that is inexpressible that I 
■welcome 3'ou here among us, the long, the steadfast friend 
of the poor, down-trodden slave. Sir, I have read of 3'OU. 
I have read of the mighty labors 3'ou have had for the con- 
summation of this glorious object. Here you see stand 
before you 3'our handiwork. Three children were robbed 
from me and I stood desolate. Many a night I pressed a 
sleepless pillow from the lime I retired to my couch until 
the close of the morning. I lost a dear wife, and after her 
death that little one, who is the counterpart of her mother's 
countenance, was taken from me. I appealed for her with 
all the love and reason of a father. The rejection came forth 
in these words : " Annoy me not, or I will sell them off to 
another State." I thank God that through ^-our instrumen- 
tality, under the folds of that glorious llag wJiich treason 
tried to triumph, you have restored them to me. And I tell 
3'ou it is not this heart alone, but there are mothers, there 
are fathers, there are sisters, and there are brothers, the 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 385 

pulsations of whose hearts are unimaginable. The greetino- 
that they would give you, sir, it is almost impossible for me 
to express ; but simply, sir, we welcome and look upon you 
as our saviour. We thank you for what you have done for 
us. Take this wreath from these children, and when 3-ou 
go home, never mind how faded they may be, preserve 
them, encase them, and keep them as a token of affection 
from one who has loved and lived. 

Mr. Garrison, in reply, spoke as follow^s : — 

My Dear Friend — I have no language to express the 
feelings of my heart in listening to your kind and strength- 
ening words, in receiving these beautiful tokens of 3T>ur 
gratitude, and in looking into the faces of this vast multi- 
tude, now happily delivered from the galling fetters of 
slavery. Let me say at the outset : " Not unto us, not unto 
us, but unto God be all the glory " for what has been done 
in regard to your emancipation. I have been actively 
engaged in this work for almost forty years — for I began 
when I was quite young to plead the cause of the enslaved 
in this country. But I never expected to look you in the 
face, never supposed you would hear of anything I might do 
in your behalf. I knew only one thing— all that I wan'ted to 
know — that 3'ou were a grievously oppressed people, and 
that, on every consideration of justice, humanity and right, 
you were entitled to immediate and unconditional freedom. 

I hate slavery as I hate nothing else in this world. It is 
not only a crime, but the sum of all criminality ; not only a 
sin, but the sin of sins against Almighty God. I cannot be 
at peace with it at any time, to any extent, under any 
circumstances. That I have been permitted to witness. its 
overthrow calls for expressions of devout thanksgiving to 
Heaven. It was not on account of j'our complexion or 
race, as a people, that I espoused 3'our cause, but because 
you were the children of a common Father, created in the 
same divine image, having the same inalienable rights, and 
as much entitled to liberty as the proudest slaveholder that 
ever walked the earth. 

For many a year I have been an outlaw at the South for 
your sakes, and a large price was set upon my head, simply 
49 



386 GARRISON AND HIS TIiMES. 

because I endeavored to remember those in bonds as bound 
with them. Yes — God is m}' witness ! — I have faithfully 
tried, in the face of the fiercest opposition, and under the 
most depressing circumstances, to make 3-our cause my 
cause ; my wife and children 3-our wives and cinldren, sub- 
jected to the same outrage and degradation ; myself on the 
same auction-block, to be sold to the highest bidder. Thank 
God, this da}^ you are free ! And be resolved that, once 
free, 3'ou will be free forever. No, not one of 3'ou ever will, 
ever can consent again to become a bondman. Libert^^ or 
death, but never slavery. 

It gives me J03' to assure 3'ou that the American Govern- 
ment will stand b3' 3'ou to estabUsh 3'our freedom against 
whatever claims 3'our masters ma3^ bring. The time was 
when it gave 3'ou no protection, but was on the side of the 
oppressor, where there was power. Now all is changed ! 
Once, I could not feel an3^ gladness at the sight of the 
American flag, because it was stained with 3'our blood, and 
under it four millions of slaves were daily driven to unre- 
quited labor. Now it floats, purged of its gor3' stain ; it 
S3'mbolizes freedom for all, without distinction of race or 
color. The Government has its hold upon the throat of the 
monster Slaver3', and is strangling the life out of it. 

In conclusion, I thank 3'ou, m3^ friend, for 3'Our affecting 
and grateful address, and for these handsome tokens of our 
Heavenly Father's wisdom and goodness, and will tr3^ to 
preserve them in accordance with your wishes. Oh, be 
assured, I never doubted that I had the gratitude and affec- 
tion of the entire colored population of the United States, 
even though personall3^ unknown to so many of them ; be- 
cause I knew that upon me heavil3' rested the wrath and 
hatred of 3'Our cruel oppressors. I was sure, therefore, if I 
had them against me, I had you with me. I close with say- 
ing, that, long as I have labored in your behalf, while God 
gives me reason and strength I shall demand for 3'OU ever3'- 
thing I claim for the whitest of the white in this country. 



Gen. Saxton having introduced Senator AVilson, 
Mr. Garrison asked leave, before he spoke, to pay 
him a tribute for his faithful labors in the cause. I 
copy his words in part, as a reply to those wdio have 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 387 

thoughtlessly charged him with a lack of appreciation 
of the work clone outside of the Garrisonian fold. 
"Mr. Wilson's life," he said, "(as well as INIr. Sumner's) , 
has been constantly imperilled at the National Capital ; 
so that, from session to session, it has been uncertain 
whether he would be permitted to sec his family and 
constituents again. He has fought a good fight, and 
deserves to be crowned with laurels." Eloquent ad- 
dresses followed from Mr. Wilson and Judge Kelly, 
and then Mr. Garrison rose to introduce George 
Thompson, of whom he spoke in terms of warm and 
affectionate appreciation, for his agency in giving free- 
dom to the slaves in the West Indies, and for his self- 
sacrificing labors in behalf of the bondmen of America. 
Mr. Thompson made an exceedingly felicitous address, 
and was loudly cheered. At every mention of the 
name of Abraham Lincoln the cheering was like the 
roaring of the sea in a storm. Mr. Eedpath told them 
of Wendell Phillips, when it was voted, with an em- 
phasis almost loud enough to be heard in Boston, that 
he be invited to come and address them on the Fourth 
of July. Other speeches followed, outside as well as 
inside the church, and the occasion was frauirht with 
an interest hardly inferior to the flag-raisiug at Sum- 
ter. 

Mr. Garrison, while remaining in Charleston, was 
the recipient of many other attentions from the freed- 
men, expressive of their deep gratitude to him for 
what he had done to break their chains. 

The anniversary of the American Anti-Slavery 
Society occurred- shortly after Mr. Garrison's return 
from Charleston. He declared in "The Liberator," 
in advance of the meeting, that, in his judgment, the 
time for the dissolution of the society liad arrived. 
Slavery being dead, there was no longer any need of 
anti-slavery societies. There were, however, some 
members of the society who had not concurred with 



388 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

" The Liberator " and " The Anti-Slavery Standard " 
in the support they gave to the re-election of Lincoln, 
and who felt that those papers had exhibited a partisan- 
ship hardly consistent with perfect fidelity to the cause. 
AVendell Phillips was avowedly of this opinion, and 
he and those agreeing with him were in favor of con- 
tinuing the society and "The Standard." The subject 
was earnestly debated in the annual meeting, A^r. 
Garrison persisting in saying, " My vocation as an 
Abolitionist, thank God ! is ended," and refusing to be 
any longer an officer or a member of the society. He 
thought the work remaining to be done for the enfran- 
chisement, protection and elevation of the people of 
color could be best performed by new associations, 
formed for that purpose, and composed, not exclusively 
of Abolitionists, but of all those friendly to the object. 
Mr. Quincy concurred with Mr. Garrison, and said : 

" Slavery being praeticall}' abolished, wanting nothing of 
technical abolition but certain formalities, as sure to be per- 
formed as the world is to endure, it seems to me that anti- 
slavery is, ipso facto ^ abolished also. It is an anomah', a 
solecism, an absurdity, to maintain an anti-slavery society 
after slavery is killed." 

Other prominent friends of the cause took the same 
view. My own opinion was expressed in "The 
Standard," in these words : — 

*' Why run the mill after the grist is out? What if the 
Constitutional Amendment forever prohibiting the re-estab- 
lishment of slavery is not yet tied up in the official red 
tape ? There is nothing that Abolitionists can do to make 
its ratification more certain. Societ}^ action is no more 
needful to this end than to ensure the vernal equinox or the 
next echpse, to make fire burn, or water run down hill. 
The Abolitionists, who have borne the heat and burden of 
the aJiti-slavery struggle, have now no distinct function. 
They should not, it seems to me, persist in occupying an 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 389 

isolated position, but rejoice to mingle with others in the 
great work of giving to the emancipated people of color the 
rights and immunities of citizens, and aiding them to rise 
above all the degrading influences of slavery and caste. It 
would be absurd to ask that the new wine of this day should 
be put into our old bottles." 

Mr. Phillips and others argued that, as the Consti- 
tutional Amendment forbidding the re-establishment 
of slavery was not yet actually ratified, as the spirit of 
slavery was still rampant, as the negro was not yet 
assured of the ballot, and as the people of color were 
still suffering from many disabilities, the society had 
an important work to do. Many Abolitionists were 
reluctant to discontinue the holding of meetings from 
which they had derived so much enjoyment in the past, 
and were therefore strongly inclined to vote for their 
continuance. The vote stood 118 for continuance, 48 
for dissolution. It is simple justice to say that among 
those who voted with the majority were a considerable 
number who had never acted with the society before, 
and some who had long been alienated from it, but 
were suddenly smitten with a conviction of its great 
usefulness. I do not wish to say a single word that 
can give pain to anybody ; above all, I would not be 
understood to impeach the motives of any individual. 
I simply desire, while doing no injustice to others, to 
make clear to my readers the position taken by Mr. 
Garrison and those who agreed with him. Among 
those who voted for continuance were some of the 
most disinterested friends of Mr. Garrison and the 
cause, of wdiose conscientiousness I have no more 
doubt than I have of my own. The division, ho^vever 
much to be lamented, was not by any means surpris- 
ino^. The Abolitionists had accustomed themselves to 
the freest exercise of their independent judgment, and 
this difference, of itself, could not be the cause of any 



390 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

unfriendly feelings. While it has always seemed to 
me that the society would have had a more dignified 
endins: if it had been dissolved then and there, or 
at a meeting then appointed ; yet I cheerfully con- 
cede that the majority did perfectly right in acting 
upon their own judgment ; and if the society did any 
good afterwards, let it have all the credit on that 
account which it deserves. But I have never been 
able to see any reason for continuing it after that date 
that would not have been equally good for continuing 
it to the present time, and for an indefinite period in 
the future. 

Mr. Garrison chose to prolong the life of "The 
Liberator" till the end of December, 1865, so that its 
files might cover the full period of thirty-five years. 
The last number contained his original Salutatory, 
printed on the first of January, 1831, followed by an 
impressive Valedictory, in which he says : — 

' ' The object for which ' The Liberator ' was commenced 
— the extermination of chattel slavery — having been glori- 
ously consummated, it seems to me specially appropriate to 
let its existence cover the historical period of the great 
struggle ; leaving what remains to be done to complete the 
work of emancipation to other instrumentalities (of which I 
hope to avail m3'self), under new auspices, with more 
abundant means, and with millions instead of hundreds for 
allies. ... I began 'The Liberator' without a sub- 
scriber, and I end it — it gives me unalloj'ed satisfaction to 
say — without a farthing as the pecuniary result of the 
patronage extended to it during thirty-five j^ears of unre- 
mitted labor. . . . Never had a journal to look such 
opposition in the face — never was one so constantl}' belied 
and caricatured. If it had advocated all the crimes forbid- 
den by the moral law of God and the statutes of the State, 
instead of vindicating the sacred claims of oppressed and 
bleeding humanit}^, it could not have been more vehemently 
denounced, or more indignantly repudiated." 



I 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 391 

But for this he had satisfactory compensation in the 
estimate formed of the paper by those wlio read it 
through the dark years of the anti-slavery struggle : — 

'^ To me it has been unspeakably cheering, and the richest 
compensation for whatever of peril, suffering and defamation 
I have been called to encounter, that one uniform testimony 
has been borne, b}' those who have had its weekly perusal, 
as to the elevating and quickening influence of ' The 
Liberator ' upon their character and aims ; and the deep 
grief they are expressing in view of its discontinuance is 
overwhelmingly affecting to m^" feelings." 

Among the congratulatory letters from old friends 
in the closing number is one from Samuel E. Sewall, 
from which 1 quote a few lines, showing the estimate 
formed of Mr. Garrison by one of the founders of the 
Liberty part}^, who was apolitical Abolitionist ever after- 
wards. " Without intending," he says, " to detract in 
the least from the incalculable value of the exertions 
and sacrifices of the many other devoted men who 
have worked for the same object, still it seems to me 
certain that you have done more than any other person 
toward effecting the absolute and unconditional aboli- 
tion of American slavery, the great event of the present 
age, and perhaps the grandest in the history of the 
world." Mr. Sewall was one of Mr. Garrison's earliest 
and most devoted friends, and their difference of 
opinion as to the best method of securing the political 
action which both desired to witness made no difference 
whatever in their mutual attachment. Mr. Sewall, 
indeed, was one of those to whom anti-slavery politics 
did not mean a withdrawal from moral agitation. 

In the last number but one INIr. Garrison gave place 
to the official ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment 
to the Constitution, forever prohibiting slavery on the 
soil of the United States. After remarking that he 



392 GAERISON AND HIS TIMES. 

had put this important voucher in type "with his own 
hand, he subjoins this exultant paragraph : — 

" Rejoice, and give praise and glory to God, 3'e who so 
long and so untiringly- participated in all the trials and 
vicissitudes of the mighty conflict. Having sown in tears, 
now reap in joy. Hail, redeemed, regenerated America ! 
Hail, North and South, East and West ! Hail, the cause of 
Peace, Libert}^ Righteousness, thus mightily strengthened 
and signally gloritied ! Hail, the Present, with its tran- 
scendent claims, its new duties, its imperative obligations ! 
Hail, the Future, with its pregnant hopes, its glorious 
promises, its illimitable powers of expansion and develop- 
ment ! Hail, ye ransomed millions, no more to be chained, 
scourged, mutilated, bought and sold in the market, robbed 
of all rights, hunted as partridges upon the mountain in 
3-our flight to obtain deliverance from the house of bondage, 
branded and scorned as a connecting link between the 
human race and the brute creation ! Hail, all nations, 
tribes, kindreds and peoples, ' made of one blood,' interested 
in a common redemption, heirs of the same immortal destin}- ! 
Hail, angels in glor^', and spirits of the just made perfect, 
and tune your harps anew, singing, ' Great and marvellous 
are thy works, Lord God Almighty ; just and true are thy 
ways, thou King of saints ! Who shall not fear thee, O 
Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou art hoi}': for all the 
nations shall come and worship before thee : for thy judg- 
ments are manifest.' " 

When before, in the history of the world, from 
Adam until this day, did any great struggle for 
humanity have a better beginning or a more glorious 
endincr? And when before was it ever «fiven to the 
founder of so grand a movement to live to witness its 
complete triumph? *^This is the Lord's doing: it is 
marvellous in our eves." 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 393 



XXIV. 

Mr. Garrison's Last Years — Tokens of Public Respect — His Activ- 
ity in Reforms — His Power as a Public Speaker — His Modesty 
— His Hopefulness — His Private and Domestic Life — His Last 
Illness and Death — The Funeral Services. 

I BELIEVE I am warranted in saying that Mr. Gar- 
rison's course in counselling the dissohition of the 
anti-slavery societies, and refusing to be longer iden- 
tified with them, after slavery was actually dead, 
though lamented by some of the truest friends of the 
cause, was regarded with strong approbation by the 
reijenerated public sentiment of the countrv. "As he 
knew when and how to begin, so also he knew how 
and when to stop," was the tribute everywhere in- 
stinctively paid to his wisdom and self-abnegation. 
" He knows when his work is done, and resorts to no 
weak or unworthy expedients to keep himself in the 
public ej^e," was the spontaneous feeling of multi- 
tudes. Many of those who had called him " fimatic " 
all their lives were astonished at this proof of his 
sound judgment and right feeling. My own belief is, 
that his course in this particular greatly augmented 
his influence, and enabled him to do far more for the 
Southern freedmen than he could have done at the 
head of an anti-slavery society, " lingering superfluous 
on the stage." Certainly his name became a power in 
the land, such as it had never been before. His coun- 
sel upon public questions was widely sought, and his 
judgment held in the highest respect. Having been 
for half a century true to the negro as a slave, he did 
not forget him in his efforts for self-improvement, and 

50 



394: GAERISON AND HIS TIMES. 

in his sufferings under other forms of tyranny ; and his 
voice and pen were still potent in his defence. Ilis 
'vvord of indignant protest and rebuke was sure to be 
heard in every instance when the Government failed 
in its duty to those whose chains it had struck off, and 
it was never heard in vain. 

The pul)lic respect and sympathy for him was mani- 
fested in the substantial provision made for his sup- 
port during the remainder of his life. The sum of 
thirty thousand dollars w^as raised, mostly in this 
country, but partly in England, and presented to him 
on the 10th of March, 1868, in a letter signed by a 
committee, consisting of Samuel E. Sewall, J. Inger- 
soll Bowditch, William E. Coffin, William Endicott, 
Jr., Samuel May, Jr., Edmund Quincy, Thomas Rus- 
sell, and Robert C. Waterston. John A. Andrew was 
the chairman of this committee at the time of his 
death. Among those who also lent their aid in pro- 
moting this testimonial, the names of Charles Sumner, 
Henry Wilson, Rev. Samuel J. Ma}', Salmon P. Chase, 
Thomas D. Eliot, Ralph AValdo Emerson, John G. 
Whittier, Henry W. Longfellow, James Russell 
Lowell, Attorney-General Speed, Alexander IL Rice, 
George S. Boutwell, Thaddeus Stevens, AVilliam D. 
Kelly, E. B. Washburne, William Cullen Bryant, 
Horace Greeley, and Gerrit Smith deserve to be men- 
tioned. An examination of these names will show, 
what I have elsewhere affirmed, that those who fought 
slavery in the political arena, though dissenting earn- 
estly from some of ^Ir. Garrison's opinions, yet held 
him in his^h esteem as the leader of the moral as^itation 
ill which anti-slavery politics had their root. Only 
the small men of the Repul)lican party, and those 
least imbued with its distinctive principles, have ever 
been found denying the truth which its great founders 
and leaders were ever foremost to acknowledge and 
affirm. 



GARRISON AND HIS- TIMES. 395 

The last fourteen 3^ears of Mr. Garrison's life were 
filled with such reformatory and phihuithropic labors 
as his impaired health permitted him to perform. He 
delivered many public addresses, and wrote not a 
little for the press. Every struggling enterprise of 
reform was sure of his sympathy and co-operation. 
Temperance, Peace, Moral Purity, and Woman Suf- 
frage engaged much of his attention, and his pen and 
voice were always at their service when required. 
His presence in any public assembly where he was 
known was sure to elicit visible tokens of popular 
esteem. One of the hitest productions of his pen was 
a letter on the Chinese question, which showed how 
clearly he apprehended tlie universal bearing and ap- 
plication of the principles on which the anti-slavery 
movement was founded, and how quickly his sympa- 
thies flowed out toward all who were oppressed. 

He was not, in the usual sense of the word, an 
orator ; nevertheless, he was one of the most impres- 
sive and forcible public speakers to whom it has ever 
been my good fortune to listen. In early life, he was 
a complete slave to his pen ; he could not trust him- 
self to make a speech without carefully writing it out 
beforehand. He grew tired of this sort of slavery 
after a while, and resolved to emancipate himself, 
which he did immediately and triumphantly. He 
found, upon trial, that thoughts and words on his 
favorite themes flowed freely. He was so thoroughly 
alive to his subject, and so intensely in earnest, that 
he never failed to command the sympathy and atten- 
tion of his audience. His personal presence disarmed 
prejudice and inspired confidence, and his constant 
identification of himself, in thought, principle and 
feeling, with "those in bonds as bound with them," 
the clear moral insight that enabled him to comprehend 
principles and penetrate every disguise of sophistry 
and false pretence, and his strong appeals to reason 



396 . GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

and conscience, gave him great power over men, both 
in public speech and private intercourse. If he lacked 
the resources which a classical culture alone can fur- 
nish, he possessed others of the very highest import- 
ance, and which such a culture often fails to supply. 
If he did not please the imagination or tickle the fancy 
of his hearers, he did what was better — he enlightened 
their minds, stirred their consciences, and swayed 
their judgments. No cause in his hands was ever put 
to shame by any hasty or ill-considered word. In deal- 
ing with opponents, his tact was unfailing. Thought- 
ful people especially heard him with delight, and the 
largest audiences felt the powxr of his logic and the 
magnetism of his voice and presence. 

There was about him no taint of self-seeking, no 
assumption of the honors of leadership. In all my 
intercourse with him, extending over a period of more 
than forty years, I never heard him utter a word 
implying a consciousness that he was a leader in the 
cause, or that he had done or achieved anything wor- 
thy of praise. He was imfeignedly modest, with not 
a touch of affected humility. He had the highest 
appreciation of the services of others, and loved to 
do them honor, whether they worked by his methods 
or not. He never mistook a molehill for a mountain, 
— never fought a battle save npon a vital issue. If 
he wrote a document for which others as well as him- 
self were to be responsible, he would allow them to 
criticise, and even to pick it all to pieces, if they 
chose, content if no principle were dishonored. He 
thought little of himself, everything of the cause. 

He was always courageous and hopeful. Never in 
a sin^jle instance did I see him in *adiscou rasped mood. 
His faith in the goodness of his cause and in the over- 
ruling Providence of God was so absolute that he was 
calm and cheerful alike under clear or cloudy skies. 
I have seen him again and again when the expenses of 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 397 

"The Liberator" were running far beyond its receipts, 
and he did not know whence the money was to come 
to supply the wants of his family ; but never once did 
any shadow fall upon his spirits on this account. He 
had given himself and all his powers to a cause that 
he believed had the favor and support of Heaven ; and 
he did not doubt that in some way he would be taken 
care of. And help always did come — sometimes in 
unex[)ected and surprising ways. His unselfish devo- 
tion to his work touched aild opened the hearts of all 
who witnessed it, disposing them to stay up his hands 
and relieve him of pecuniary embarrassment. If in 
his greatest extremity he had been absolutely certain 
that he could make his paper profita])le by the slight- 
est dereliction of principle, by trimming a little on this 
side or that, or by the suppression of unpopular truth, 
he never would have yielded to the temptation. j 

Of Mr. Garrison's private, domestic and social life 
I hardly dare trust myself to speak. A man of more 
spotless excellence in every relation of life I have/ 
never known. As a husband, father and friend he 
was indeed a model, and his home was ever the abode 
of love and peace. His wife, the youngest daughter 
of the late Mr. George Benson, of Brooklyn, Conn., I 
was a noble woman and a true helpmate. Mr. Garri-] 
son's devotion, as a husband and father, was one of his 
most beautiful characteristics. He never made his 
public relations an excuse for neglecting his family. 
Did one of the children cry in the night, it Avas in his 
arms that it was caressed and comforted. In every 
possible way, in the care of the children and in all 
household matters, he sought to lighten the cares of 
his wife, taking upon himself burdens which most hus- 
bands and fathers shun. In short, he made his home 
a heaven, into which it was a delight to enter. He 
was never so. happy as when surrounded by his wife 
and children and a few favored guests. Under such 



398 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

circumstances he was at his best — happy as a bird, 
genial, witty and full of a generous hospitality. 

In 1864 Mr. Garrison purchased the estate in Rox- 

bury known as "Rockledge," which was his home for 

the remainder of his life ; and never did the sun look 

down upon a happier household than that by which he 

was surrounded. Children and grandchildren rose up 

to do him honor, and the gracious sweetness of his 

nature was in perpetual flow. The great work of his 

life done, and well done, he gave himself up very 

largely to the social enjoyments which are the best 

solace of age. There was but one drawback to his 

happiness now, and that was the illness of his beloved 

wife. With what tenderness and solicitude he watched 

over her, making all his plans, so far as possible, 

tributary to her welfare, only his most intimate friends 

can ever know. And her unselfish thoughtfulness was 

equal to his own. Invalid that she was, she cast no 

shadow upon the household enjoyment, but made it 

brighter by her smiles and cheerful words. Her 

death in 1876 left a void in the heart of her husband, 

and in the household as well, that could never be filled. 

But his faith in another and a better life beyond the 

grave made him cheerful to the last. B}^ hundreds of 

his dear friends "Kockledge " will ever be remembered 

as the scene of hospitalities large, free and confiding; 

a home in which every virtue that adorns humanity 

was exemplified. 

His reverence for woman was strong, and no one 
ever heard from his lips a word or a sentiment that 
could bring a blush to her cheek. ; He had a tender 
regard for the feelings of others, and was always 
thoughtful for their comfort and convenience. - Espec- 
ially was he studious for the comfort of servants and 
others in his employ, willingly inconveniencing him- 
self for their sake. His kindness extended to the 
brute creation. The household cat missed him when 






M I 

22 I 

•:^ I 

2 I 



' 7^' 







^iJjci-_ 




GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 399 

lie was absent and welcomed him on his return. Once, 
when a boy, he came home after a protracted absence, 
and being awakened out of sleep by Tabby's purr, 
found that she had brought to his pillow her whole 
brood of new-born kittens, confident of his sympathy 
in her maternal joy. He placed good Mr. Bergh high 
on the roll of benefactors for his kind intervention in 
behalf of the oppressed brute creation, and his face 
lio'hted U]) with enthusiasm in tellinc: stories of llarev's 
exploits in subduing fractious horses by kindness. To 
the poor and the unfortunate his heart and his purse 
were ever open. Children were drawn to him by an 
irresistible attraction. His conversation, though «:en- 
erally serious, often sparkled with wit and fun. In 
how many families is his name now spoken with 
a tender, tearful reverence, while the memory of his 
gracious presence as a guest will be fondly cherished 
and proudly transmitted. 

Seven children were born to Mr. Garrison, two of 
whom — a son and daughter — died in infancy. The 
names of those who survive are as follows, in the 
order of their birth : — George Thompson, William 
Lloyd, Wendell Phillips, Fanny (wife of Mr. Henry 
Villard, at whose house the father died), and Francis 
Jackson. It is understood that his sons will Avrite the 
life of their father, for which the materials must be 
abundant. Massachusetts will some day honor herself 
by erecting a monument to his memory. But the best 
of all mementoes of his noble life are the broken 
fetters of four millions of slaves ! 

Of Mr. Garrison's last illness and death I can give 
no more satisfactory account than that contained in 
the pamphlet report of the funeral exercises : — 

" The announcement of his critical illness, speedily fol- 
lowed by that of his death, while absent from home, took 
his friends and the public on both sides of the Atlantic by 



400 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

surprise ; for though it Tvas known that he had been infirm 
in health, the vigor of his recent contributions to the pubUc 
i:)ress (the latest of which, in denunciation of the anti-^; 
Chinese bill, and on the exodus of the freedmen of Missis- 
sippi and Louisiana to Kansas, had appeared within a few 
weeks) had made it difficult to believe that his health was at 
all precarious. Onl}' his famil}' and immediate friends knew 
that those letters were written while he was suffering such 
pain and discomfort that the feeling that he must lift up his 
voice, and bear his testimony' once more on the question of 
human rights, alone enabled him to accomplish the task. 
The exhaustion and prostration which followed these efforts 
made it evident to himself that his forces were nearly spent, 
and gave his family much concern. 

" Even from his seventy-third birthday (December 10, 
1878), his private letters were marked b}' forebodings of his 
approaching end, which he welcomed as a relief from phy- 
sical infirmities. In the following April, 1879, the feeling 
which he described as a giving wa}' of the internal organism 
became so strong, and his malady (a chronic aftection of the 
kidneys) so intolerable, that, at the solicitation of his 
daughter, he went to New York to put himself under the 
care of her family physician. lie arrived at the Westmore- 
land Apartment House, where she resided, on Monday 
afternoon, April 28th. On Wednesdav the treatment began, 
with immediate promise of good results ; which was, how- 
ever, of necessity, soon disappointed. On Saturday, May 
10th, he took to his bed, but even then those about him did 
not fairl}' realize the gravity of his condition. At the end 
of another week, however, the symptoms became unmistak- 
abl}' alarming, and on Tuesda}', Ma}' 20th, the members of 
the family in Boston were summoned b}' telegraph. They 
arrived the next day. The final changes proceeded slowly, 
and the death-struggle did not set in till half-past ten o'clock 
on the evening of Friday. Up to that time, though disin- 
clined to talk unless spoken to, he retained all his faculties, 
and recognized his children and grandchildren by voice and by 
sight ; and onl}' an hour or two before he lost this conscious- 
ness, he listened with manifest pleasure to the singing of 
his favorite hymns, to which, as he lay outstretched, he beat 
time both with his hands and feet. He expired peacefully 



GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 401 

at a few minutes past 11 o'clock on the succeeding night, 
Saturda}^, May 24th. His iUness had been in man}' respects 
a distressing one, even in comparison with the wretched 
months that preceded it ; but the prevaiHng sense was of 
weariness — frequentl}' expressed in a desire to ' go home ' — ■ 
rather than of acute bodily pain, though that was not want- 
ing. His vitahty was remarkably illustrated throughout. 

" A post-mortem examination having been made on Mon- 
da}', Mr. Garrison's remains were removed the same night 
to Roxbury, Mass. On Wednesda}' afternoon, May 28th, 
the funeral services were held in the neighboring church of 
the First Religious Societ}", which the trustees had kindly 
placed at the disposal of the family and the public." 

Mr. Garrison was exceedingly fond of sacred music. 
He had a fine ear and an excellent voice, and loved to 
sins: the chnrch tunes and anthems which he learned 
in boyhood, whenever he could find others to sing 
with him. As he moved about the house or played 
with the children, from day to day, his voice often 
broke forth in his fiivorite hymns or songs. The fol- 
lowing are some of the pieces which his children sang 
to him in his dying hours, and which evidently gave 
him great pleasure : — 

Hebron. — Thus far the Lord hath led me on, 

Thus far His power prolongs uiy days, 
And every evening shall make known 
Some fresh memorial of His grace. 

Christmas. — Awake, my soul, stretch every nerve, 
And press with vigor on ; 
A heavenly race demands thy zeal, 
And an immortal crown. 

Aviaterdam. — Rise, my soul, and stretch thy wings, 
Thy better portion trace ; 
Eise from transitory things 
To Heaven, thy native place. 

Confidence. — Now can my soul in God rejoice. 

Coronation. — All hail the power of Jesus' name. 

OJd Hundred. — From all that dwell below the skies. 

Portuguese Hymn. — The Lord is my Shepherd. 

51 



402 GARRISON AND HIS TIMES. 

Lenox. — Ye tribes of Adam join 

With Heaven and earth and seas, 
And offer notes divine 
To your Creators i)raise. 

Mr. Garrison's funeral was remarkable for the num- 
ber of his surviving friends and co-laborers in the 
anti-slavery and kindred reformatory movements who 
came to pay the last tribute of respect to his character 
and memory. There were also present not a few who 
were formerly either indifferent or hostile to the anti- 
slavery cause, but who now desired to show their re- 
spect and admiration for him on account of the great 
work to which his life had been consecrated. Many 
colored people also were present. In accordance with 
Mr. Garrison's views of death, care was taken to avoid 
the appearance of mourning and gloom which gener- 
ally characterizes such occasions. The blinds were 
opened to admit the sAveet sunlight, the pulpit was 
decorated with flowers, and the hymns of cheer and 
inspiration of which he w^as so fond were sung. The 
whole audience rose when the body was borne into the 
church, followed by the pall-bearers and the family. 
The pall-bearers were Wendell Phillips, Samuel May, 
Samuel E. Sewall, Robert F. Wallcut, Theodore D. 
Weld, Oliver Johnson, Lewis Ilayden and Charles 
Mitchell — the two last named being colored men. 

The exercises were conducted by the Rev. Samuel 
May, one of Mr. Garrison's most trusted friends, who 
for nearly twenty years was the general agent of the 
Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society. After repeat- 
ing the Lord's Prayer, he read a selection from the 
portions of Scripture which Mr. Garrison used fre- 
quently to read in anti-slavery meetings. Then fol- 
lowed addresses of a most appropriate character from 
Mr. May, Mrs. Lucy Stone, Rev. Samuel Johnson, 
Theodore D. Weld and Wendell Phillips, interspersed 
with music by a quartette of colored singers, composed 



GAimiSON AND HIS TIMES. 403 

of Mrs. Nellie B. Mitchell, soprano ; Miss Fannie A. 
Washington, contralto; Mr. William Walker, tenor; 
Mr. Lewis A. Fisher, basso. The pieces siino- were : 
"Awake, my soul, stretch every nerve;" "Ye tribes 
of Adam, join;" and "Rise, my soul, and stretch thy 
wings." Mr. Johnson, at the close of his address, 
read portions of the poem by John G. Whittier, which 
will be found in the appendix, together Avith the 
address of Mr. Phillips. 

The whole assembly availed themselves of the 
opportunity to look reverently at the face of the dead, 
and during the time occupied by this ceremony a great 
number of Mr. Garrison's old friends embraced the 
opportunity to exchange friendly greetings, and to 
speak tenderly and affectionately, but not sadly, of 
their departed leader. 

As the last rays of the setting sun fell in serene 
beauty upon the cemetery at Forest Hills, glorifying 
that "city of the dead," the remains of the great 
philanthropist were laid, w^ith tender and reverent 
hands, in the grave, by the side of his departed wife, 
in the presence of his children and grandchildren and 
many of his old associates in the anti-slavery struggle. 
Before the grave was filled, the quartette of colored 
singers, that had rendered such acceptable service at 
the church, sang a hymn, commencing, "I cannot 
always trace the way," after which the company re- 
tired, leaving all that was mortal of William Lloyd 
Garrison to its rest. 

THE END. 



404 APPENDIX. 



APPENDIX. 



KEMAEKS OF WENDELL PHILLIPS 



AT THE 



Funeral of William Lloyd Garrison, 
Boston, May 28, 1879. 



It has been well said that we are not here to weep, and 
neither are we here to praise. No life closes without sad- 
ness. Death, after all, no matter what hope or wliat mem- 
ories surround it, is terrible and a m3'stery. We never part 
hands that have been clasped life-long in loving tenderness 
but the hour is sad ; still, we do not come here to weep. 
In other moments, elsewhere, we can offer tender and lov- 
ing sympathy to those whose roof-tree is so sadty bereaved. 
But in the spirit of the great life which we commemorate, 
this hour is for the utterance of a lesson ; this hour is given 
to contemplate a grand example, a rich inheritance, a noble 
life worthily ended. You come together, not to pay tribute, 
even loving tribute, to the friend 30U have lost, whose feat- 
ures 3'ou will miss from daity life, but to remember the 
grand lesson of that career ; to speak to each other, and to 
emphasize what that life teaches, — especially in the hearing 
of these 3'oung listeners, who did not see that marvellous 



APPENDIX. 405 

career ; in their hearing to construe the meaning of the great 
name which is borne world-wide, and tell them why on both 
sides the ocean, the news of his death is a matter of interest 
to every lover of his race. As my friend said, we have no 
right to be silent. Those of us who stood near him, who 
witnessed the secret springs of his action, the consistent in- 
ward and outward life, have no right to be silent. The 
largest contribution that will ever be made by any single 
man*s life to the knowledge of the working of our institu- 
tions will be the picture of his career. He sounded the 
depths of the weakness, he proved the ultimate strength, of 
republican institutions ; he gave us to know the perils that 
confront us ; he taught us to rally the strength that lies hid. 
To my mind there are three remarkable elements in his 
career. One is rare even among great men. It was his 
own moral nature, unaided, uninfluenced from outside, that 
consecrated him to a great idea. Other men ripen gradu- 
ally. The 3'oungest of the great American names that will 
be compared with his was between thirt}' and forty when 
his first anti-slavery word was uttered. Luther was thirt}*- 
four 3'ears old when an infamous enterprise woke him to in- 
dignation, and it then took two 3'ears more to reveal to him 
the mission God designed for him. This man was in jail 
for his opinions when he was just twent3'-four. He had 
confronted a nation in the ver3' bloom of his 3'outh. It 
could be said of him more than of an3^ other American in 
our da3', and more than of anv' great leader that I chance 
now to remember in any epoch, that he did not need cir- 
cumstances, outside influence, some great pregnant event 
to press him into service, to provoke him to thought, to 
kindle him into enthusiasm. His moral nature was as mar- 
vellous as was the intellect of Pascal. It seemed to be born 
fully equipped, "finely touched." Think of the mere dates ; 
think that at some twent3^-four 3'ears old, while Christian- 



406 APPENDIX. 

ity and statesmanship, the experience, the genius of the 
land, were wandering in the desert, aghast, amazed, and 
confounded over a frightful evil, a great sin, this boy sounded, 
found, invented the talisman, "Immediate, unconditional 
emancipation on the soil." You may say he borrowed it 
— true enough — from the lips of a woman on the other 
side of the Atlantic ; but he was the only American whose 
moral nature seemed, just on the edge of Ufe, so perfectly 
open to duty and truth that it answered to the far-off bugle- 
note, and proclaimed it instantly as a complete solution of 
the problem. 

Young men, you have no conception of the miracle of 
that insight ; for it is not given to 3'ou to remember with 
any vividness the blackness of the darkness of ignorance 
and indifference which then brooded over what was called 
the moral and religious element of the American people. 
When I think of him, as Melancthon said of Luther, "day 
by day grows the wonder fresh" at the ripeness of the 
moral and intellectual life that God gave him at the very 
opening. 

You hear that boy's lips announcing the statesmanlike 
solution which startled politicians and angered church and 
people. A year aftei-wards, with equally single-hearted 
devotion, in words that have been so often quoted, with 
those dungeon doors behind him, he enters on his career. 
In January, 1831, then twenty-five years old, he starts the 
pubhcation of "The Liberator," advocating the immediate 
abohtion of slavery; and, with the sublime pledge, "I will 
be as harsh as truth and as uncompromising as justice. On 
this subject I do not wish to speak or write with modera- 
tion. I will not equivocate — I will not excuse — I will not 
retreat a single inch — and I will be heard." 

Then began an agitation which for the marvel of its 
origin, the majesty of its purpose, the earnestness, unself- 



APPENDIX. 407 

ishness and ability of its appeals, the vigor of its assault, 
the deep national convulsion it caused, the vast and benefi- 
cent changes it wrought, and its wide-spread, indirect in- 
fluence on all kindred moral questions, is without a parallel 
in history since Luther. This bo}^ created and marshalled 
it. His converts held it up and carried it on. Before this, 
all through the preceding century, there had been among 
us scattered and single abolitionists, earnest and able men ; 
sometimes, like Wythe of Virginia, in high places. The 
Quakers and Covenanters had never intermitted their testi- 
mony against slaver3^ But Garrison was the first man to 
begin a movement designed to annihilate slaver3\ He an- 
nounced the principle, arranged the method, gathered the 
forces, enkindled the zeal, started the argument, and finally 
marshalled the nation for and against the system in a con- 
flict that came near rending the Union. 

I marvel again at the instinctive sagacity which discerned 
the hidden forces fit for such a movement, called them forth, 
and wielded them to such prompt results. Archimedes said, 
" Give me a spot and I will move the world." O'Connell 
leaned back on three milUons of Irishmen, all on fire with 
sympathy. Cobden's hands were held up b}^ the whole 
manufacturing interest of Great Britain ; his treasury was 
the wealth of the middle classes of the countr}^ and behind 
him also, in fair proportion, stood the religious convictions 
of England. Marvellous was their agitation ; as 3'ou gaze 
upon it in its successive stages and analyze it, 3'ou are as- 
tonished at what the}' invented for tools. But this boy 
stood alone ; utterly" alone, at first. There was no S3'mpathy 
an3'where ; his hands were empt3' ; one single penniless 
comrade was his onl3^ helper. Starving on bread and water, 
he could command the use of t3'pes, that was all. Trade 
endeavored to crush him ; the intellectual life of America 
disowned him. 



408 APPENDIX. 

My friend Weld has said the church was a thick bank 
of black cloud looming over him. Yes. But no sooner did 
the church discern the impetuous boy's purpose than out 
of that dead, sluggish cloud thundered and lightened a ma- 
lignity which could not find words to express its hate. The 
very pulpit where I stand saw this apostle of libert}^ and 
justice sore beset, alwaj's in great need, and often in deadly 
peril ; yet it never gave him one word of approval or sym- 
path}'. During all his weary struggle, Mr. Garrison felt 
its weight in the scale against him. In those years it led 
the sect which arrogates to itself the name of Liberal. If 
this was the bearing of so-called Liberals, what bitterness 
of opposition, judge 3'e, did not the others show? A mere 
bo}' confronts church, commerce, and college ; a boy with 
neither training nor experience ! Almost at once the as- 
sault tells ; the whole country is hotlj^ interested. What 
created such life under those ribs of death ? Whence came 
that instinctive knowledge ? Where did he get that sound 
common-sense? Whence did he summon that almost un- 
erring sagacity which, smarting agitation on an untried field, 
never committed an error, provoking 3'ear by 3'ear addi- 
tional enthusiasm ; gathering, as he advanced, helper after 
helper to his side ! I marvel at the miraculous bo3\ He 
had no means. Where he got, whence he summoned, how 
he created, the elements which changed 1830 into 1835 
— 1830 apathy, indifference, ignorance, icebergs, into 1835, 
every man intelligently hating him, and mobs assaulting 
him in every city — is a marvel which none but older men 
than I can adequately anal3'ze and explain. He said to a 
friend who remonstrated with him on the heat and severity 
of his language, "Brother, I have need to be all on fire, for 
I have mountains of ice about me to melt." Well, that 
dungeon of 1830, that universal apathy, that deadness of 
soul, that contempt of what called itself intellect, in ten 



APPENDIX. 409 

years he changed into the whole country aflame. He made 
every single home, press, pulpit, and senate-chamber a de- 
bating societ}', with Jiis right and wrong for the subject. 
And as was said of Luther, " God honored him by making 
all the worst men his enemies." 

Fastened on that daity life was a malignant attention and 
criticism such as no American has ever endured. I will 
not call it a criticism of hate ; that word is not strong 
enough. Malignity searched him with candles from the 
moment he uttered that God-given solution of the prob- 
lem to the moment when he took the hand of the nation 
and wrote out the statute which made it law. Malignity 
searched those forty years with candles, and yet even ma- 
lignity has never lisped a suspicion, much less a charge — ■ 
never lisped a suspicion of anything mean, dishonorable, 
dishonest. No man, however mad with hate, however fierce 
in assault, ever dared to hint that there was anj'thing low 
in motive, false in assertion, selfish in purpose, dishonest in 
method — never a stain on the thought, the word, or the 
deed. 

Now contemplate this boy entering such an arena, con- 
fronting a nation and all its forces, utterly pooi', with no 
sj^mpathy from any quarter, conducting an angry, widj- 
spread, and profound agitation for ten, twenty, forty years, 
amid the hate of everything strong in American life, and 
the contempt of everything influential, and no stain, not the 
slightest shadow of one, rests on his escutcheon ! Summon 
me the public men, the men who have put their hands to 
the helm of the vessel of state since 1780, of whom that 
can be said, although love and admiration, which almost 
culminated in worship, attended the steps of some of them. 

Then look at the work he did. My friends have spoken 
of his influence. What American ever held his hand so 
long and so powerfully on the helm of social, intellectual, 

62 



410 APPENDIX. 

and moral America? There have been giants in our day. 
Great men God has granted in widely different spheres ; 
earnest men, men whom public admiration lifted early into 
power. I sliall venture to name some of thera. Perhaps 
you will say it is not usual on an occasion like this, but 
long-waiting truth needs to be uttered in an hour when 
this great example is still absolutely indispensable to in- 
spire the effort, to guide the steps, to cheer the hope, of the 
nation not 3'et arrived in the promised land. I want to 
show 3'ou the vast breadth and depth that this man's name 
signifies. We have had Webster in the Senate ; we have 
had Lyman Beecher in the pulpit ; we have had Calhoun 
at the head of a section ; we have had a philosopher at Con- 
cord with his inspiration penetrating the j^oung mind of the 
Northern States. They are the four men that histor}-, per- 
haps, will mention somewhere near the great force whose 
closing in this scene we commemorate to-da3% Remember 
now not merel}^ the inadequate means at this man's con- 
trol, not simply the bitter hate that he confronted, not the 
vast work that he must be allowed to have done, — surely 
vast, when measured by the opposition he encountered and 
the strength he held in his hands, — but dismissing all those 
considerations, measuring nothing but the breadth and depth 
of his hold, his grasp on American character, social change, 
and general progress, what man's signet has been set so deep, 
planted so forever on the thoughts of his epoch? Trace 
home intelligently, trace home to their sources, the changes 
social, political, intellectual and religious, that have come 
over us during the last fifty 3'ears, — the volcanic convulsions, 
the stormy waves which have tossed and rocked our genera- 
tion, — and 5'ou will find close at the sources of the Mis- 
sissippi this boy with his proclamation ! 

The great party that put on record the statute of freedom 
was made up of men whose conscience he quickened and 



APPF.XDIX. • 411 

whose intellect he inspired, and the}'' long stood the tools of 
a public opinion that he created. The grandest name be- 
side his in the America of our times is that of John Brown. 
Brown stood on the platform that Garrison built ; and Mrs. 
Stowe herself charmed an audience that he gathered for 
her, with words which he inspired, from a heart that he 
kindled. Sitting at his feet were leaders born of " The Lib- 
erator," the guides of public sentiment. I know whereof I 
affirm. It was often a pleasant boast of Charles Sumner 
that he read "The Liberator" two years before I did, and 
among the great men who followed his lead and held up his 
hands in Massachusetts, where is the intellect, where is the 
heart that does not trace to this printer-boy the first pulse 
that bade him serve the slave ? For myself, no words can 
adequately tell the measureless debt I owe him, the moral 
and intellectual life he opened to me. I feel like the old 
Greek, who, taught himself by Socrates, called his own 
scholars "the disciples of Socrates." 

This is only another instance added to the roll of the 
Washingtons and the Hampdens, whose root is not ability, 
but character ; that influence which, like the great Mas- 
ter's of Judea (humanly speaking) , spreading through the 
centuries, testifies that the world sufiers its grandest changes 
not by genius, but by the more potent control of character. 
His was an earnestness that would take no denial, that 
consumed opposition in the intensity of its convictions, that 
knew nothing but right. As friend after friend gathered 
slowly, one by one, to his side, in that very meeting of a 
dozen heroic men, to form the New England Anti-Slavery 
Societ}', it was his compelling hand, his resolute unwilling- 
ness to temper or qualify the utterance, that finally dedi- 
cated that first organized movement to the doctrine of im- 
mediate emancipation. He seems to have understood — this 
boy without experience — he seems to have understood by 



412 APPENDIX. 

instinct that righteousness is the only thing which will 
finally compel submission ; that one, with God, is alwaj's a 
majority. He seems to have known it at the very outset, 
taught of God, the herald and champion, God-endowed and 
God-sent to arouse a nation, that onl}' by the most absolute 
assertion of the uttermost truth, without qualification or 
compromise, can a nation be waked to conscience or strength- 
ened for duty. No man ever understood so thoroughly — 
not O'Connell, nor Cobden — the nature and needs of that 
agitation which alone, in our day, reforms states. In the 
darkest hour he never doubted the omnipotence of con- 
science and the moral sentiment. 

And then look at the unquailing courage with which he 
faced the successive obstacles that confronted him ! Modest, 
believing at the outset that America could not be as cor- 
rupt as she seemed, he waits at the door of the churches, 
importunes leading clerg3'men, begs for a voice from the 
sanctuary, a consecrated protest from the pulpit. To his 
utter amazement, he learns, by thus probing it, that the 
church will give him no help, but, on the contrary, surges 
into the movement in opposition. Serene, though astounded 
by the unexpected revelation, he simply turns his footsteps, 
and announces that "a Christianity which keeps peace 
with the oppressor is no Christianit}^," aud goes on his way 
to supplant the religious clement which the church had 
allied with sin by a deeper religious faith. Yes, he sets 
himself to work, this stripling with his sling confronting the 
angry giant in complete steel, this solitary evangelist, to 
make Christians of twenty millions of people ! I am not ex- 
aggerating. You know, older men, who can go back to that 
period ; I know that when one, kindred to a voice that you 
have heard to-da}', whose pathway Garrison's bloody feet 
had made easier for the treading, when he uttered in a pul- 
pit in Boston only a few strong words, injected in the course 



APPENDIX. 413 

of a sermon, his venerable father, between seventy and 
eigtity years, was met the next morning and his hand 
shaken by a much moved friend. " Colonel, you have my 
sympathy. I cannot tell you how much I pity you." 
"What," said the brusque old man, "what is your pity?" 
"Well, I hear 3'our son went crazy at 'Church Green' 
3'esterday." Such was the utter indifference. At that time, 
bloody feet had smoothed the pathway for other men to 
tread. Still, then and for 3^ears afterwards, insanity was 
the only kind-hearted excuse that partial friends could find 
for sj'mpathy with such a madman ! 

If anything strikes one more prominently than another in 
this career — to your astonishment, young men, j-ou may say 
— it is the plain, sober common-sense, the robust English 
element which underlay Cromwell, which explains Hamp- 
den, which gives the color that distinguishes 1640 in Eng- 
land from 1790 in France. Plain, robust, well-balanced 
common-sense. Nothing erratic ; no enthusiasm which had 
lost its hold on firm earth ; no mistake of method ; no 
unmeasured confidence ; no miscalculation of the enemy's 
strength. Whoever mistook. Garrison seldom mistook. 
Fewer mistakes in that long agitation of fifty 3'ears can be 
charged to his account than to any other American. Erratic 
as men supposed him, intemperate in utterance, mad in judg- 
ment, an enthusiast gone craz}^, the moment 3'ou sat down 
at his side, patient in explanation, clear in statement, sound 
in judgment, studying carefull}^ eve'r^^ step, calculating every 
assault, measuring the force to meet it, never in haste, al- 
ways patient, waiting until the time ripened, — fit for a 
great leader. Cull, if you please, from the statesmen who 
obeyed him, whom he either whipped into submission or 
summoned into existence, cull from among them the man 
whose career, fairly examined, exhibits fewer miscalcula- 
tions and fewer mistakes than this career which is just ended. 



414 APPENDIX. 

I know what I claim. As Mr. Weld has said, I am 
BpeakiDg to-da}' to men who judge by their ears, b^^ rumors ; 
who see, not with their c^'cs, but with their prejudices. Ilis- 
tor}^, fifty 3'ears hence, dispellhig your prejudices, will do 
justice to the grand sweep of the orbit which, as my friend 
said, to-day we are hardly in a position, or mood, to meas- 
ure. As Coleridge avers, "The truth-haters of to-morrow 
will give the right name to the truth-haters of to-day, for 
even such men the stream of time bears onward." I do not 
fear that if my words are remembered b}^ the next gener- 
ation they will be thought unsupported or extravagant, 
"When histor}^ seeks the sources of New England character, 
when men begin to open up and examine the hidden springs 
and note the convulsions and the throes of American life 
within the last half centur}^ they will remember Parker, 
that Jupiter of the pulpit ; they will remember the long 
unheeded but measureless influence that cam.e to us from 
the seclusion of Concord ; they will do justice to the mas- 
terly statesmanship which guided, during a part of his life, 
the efforts of Webster, but thc}^ will recognize that there 
was only one man north of Mason and Dixon's line who 
met squarel}', with an absolute logic, the else impregnable 
position of John C. Calhoun ; only one brave, far-sighted, 
keen, logical intellect, which discerned that there were onl}'' 
two moral points in the universe, right and ivroiig; that 
when one was asserted, subterfuge and evasion would be 
sure to end in defeat. 

Here lies the brain and the heart ; here lies the statesman- 
like intellect, logical as Jonathan Edwards, brave as Lu- 
ther, which confronted the logic of South Carolina with an 
assertion direct and broad enough to make an issue and 
necessitate a conflict of two civilizations. Calhoun said. 
Slavery is right. Webster and Cla}^ shrunk from him and 
evaded his assertion. Garrison, alone at that time, met 



APPENDIX. 415 

him face to face, proclaiming slavery a sin and darln"" all 
the inferences. It is true, as New Orleans complains to-day 
in her journals, that this man brought upon America every- 
thing they call the disaster of the last twenty years ; and it 
is equally true that if 3-ou seek through the hidden causes 
and unheeded events for the hand that wrote ^'emancipa- 
tion " on the statute-book and on the flag, it lies still there 
to-da}'. 

• I have no time to number the many kindred reforms to which 
he lent as profound an earnestness and almost as large aid. 
I hardly dare enter that home. There is one other 
marked, and, as it seems to me, unprecedented, element in 
this career. His was the happiest life I ever saw. No 
need for pity. Let no tear fall over his life. No man 
gathered into his bosom a fuller sheaf of blessing, delight, 
and joy. In his seventy years, there were not arrows enough 
in the whole quiver of the church or state to wound him. 
As Guizot once said from the tribune, "Gentlemen, 30U 
cannot get high enough to reach the level of my contempt." 
So Garrison, from the serene level of his daily life, from the 
faith that never faltered, was able to say to American hate, 
"You cannot reach up to the level of my home mood, my 
daily existence." I have seen him intimatel^^ for thirty 
3'ears, while raining on his head was the hate of the com- 
munit}', when by ever}^ possible foi'm of expression malig- 
nit}^ let him know that it wished him all sorts of harm. I 
never saw him unhappy ; I never saw the moment that se- 
rene, abounding faith in the rectitude of his motive, the 
soundness of his method, and the certainty of his success did 
not lift him above all possibility of being reached by any 
clamor about him. Every one of his near friends will agree 
with me that this was the happiest life God has granted 
in our day to any American standing in the foremost rank 
of influence and eflbrt. 



416 APPENDIX. 

Adjourned from the stormiest meeting, where hot de- 
bate had roused all his powers as near to anger as his 
nature ever let him come, the music of a dozen voices — 
even of those who had just opposed him — or a piano, if 
the house held one, changed his mood in an instant, 
and made the hour laugh with more than content ; unless 
indeed, a baby and playing with it proved metal even more 
attractive. 

To champion wearisome causes, bear with disordered in- 
tellects, to shelter the wrecks of intemperance and fugitives 
whose pulse trembled at every touch on the door-latch — 
this was his home ; keenly alive to human suffering, ever 
prompt to help relieve it, pouring out his means for that 
more lavishly than he ought — all this was no burden, 
never clouded or depressed the inextinguishable buoyancy 
and gladness of his nature. God ever held over him un- 
clouded the sunlight of his countenance. 

And he never grew old. The tabernacle of flesh grew 
feebler and the step was less elastic. But the ability to 
work, the serene faith and unflagging hope suffered no 
change. To the day of his death he was as ready as in his 
boyhood to confront and defy a mad majority. The keen 
insight and clear judgment never failed him. Ilis tenacity 
of purpose never weakened. He showed nothing either of 
the intellectual sluggishness or the timidity of age. The 
bugle-call which, last year, woke the nation to its peril and 
duty on the Southern question, showed all the old fltness to 
lead and mould a people's course. Younger men might be 
confused or dazed by plausible pretensions, and half the 
North was befooled ; but the old pioneer detected the false 
ring as quickly as in his youth. The words his dying hand 
traced, welcoming the Southern exodus and foretelling its 
result, had all the defiant courage and prophetic solemnity 
of his 3'oungest and boldest daj's. 



APPENDIX. 417 

Serene, fearless, marvellous man ! Mortal, with so few 
shortcomings ! 

Farewell, for a very little while, noblest of Christian 
men ! Leader, brave, tireless, unselfish ! When the ear 
heard thee, then it blessed thee ; the eye that saw thee gave 
witness to thee. More truly than it could ever heretofore 
be said since the great patriarch wrote it, " the blessing of 
him that was ready to perish " was thine eternal gi'eat re- 
ward. 

Though the clouds rest for a moment to-day on the great 
work that you set your heart to accomplish, you knew, God 
in his love let 3'ou see, that j^our work was done ; that one 
thing, by his blessing on j'our efforts, is fixed beyond the 
possibility of change. While that ear could listen, God 
gave what He has so rarely given to man, the plaudits and 
prayers of four millions of victims, thanking 3-ou for eman- 
cipation, and through the clouds of to-day 3'our heart, as it 
ceased to beat, felt certain, certain^ that whether one flag or 
two shall rule this continent in time to come, one thing is 
eettled — it never henceforth can be trodden by a slave ! 



To W. L. G. 

Champion of those who groan beneath 

Oppression's iron hand : 
In view of penury, hate, and death, 

I see thee fearless stand. 
Still bearing up thy lofty brow, 

In the steadfast strength of truth, 
In manhood sealing well the vow 

And promise of thy youth. 

Go on, — for thou hast chosen well ; 

On in the strength of God ! 
Long as one human heart shall swell 

Beneath the tyrant's rod. 



418 APPENDIX. 

Speak in a slumbering nation's ear, 
As thou hast ever spoken, 

Until the dead in sin shall hear, — 
The fetter's link bo broken ! 

I love thee with a brother's love; 

I feel my pulses thrill, 
To mark thy spirit soar above 

The cloud of human ill. 
My h'eart hath leaped to answer thine, 

And echo back thy words, 
As leaps the warrior's at the shino 

And flash of kindred swords ! 

They tell me thou art rash and vain, — 

A searcher after fame ; 
That thou art striving but to gain 

A long-enduring name ; 
That thou hast nerved the Afric's hand 

And steeled the Afric's heart, 
To shake aloft his vengeful brand, 

And rend his chain apart. 

Have I not known thee well, and read 

Thy mighty purpose long ? 
And watched the trials which have made 

Thy human spirit strong ? 
And shall the slanderer's demon breath 

Avail with one like me. 
To dim the sunshine of my faith 

And earnest trust in thee ? 

Go on, — the dagger's point may glare 

Amid thy pathway's gloom, — 
The fate which sternly threatens there 

Is glorious martyrdom ! 
Then onward with a martyr's zeal ; 

And wait thy sure reward 
When man to man no more shall kneel, 

And God alone be Lord ! 



John G. Whittieh, 1833. 



APPENDIX. 41 y 



GARRISON. 

The storm and peril overpast, 
The hounding hatred shamed and still, 

Go, soul of freedom ! take at last 
The place which thou alone canst fill. 

Confirm the lesson taught of old— 
Life saved for self is lost, while thgy 

Who lose it in His service hold 
The lease of God's eternal day. 

Not for thyself, but for the slave 
Thy words of thunder shook the world ; 

No selfish griefs or hatred gave 

The strength wherewith thy holts were hurled. 

From lips that Sinai's trumpet blew 

We heard a tenderer undersong ; 
Thy very wrath from pity grew, 

From love of man thy hate of wrong. 

Now past and present are as one; 

The life below is life above ; 
Thy mortal years have but begun 

The immortality of love. 

With somewhat of thy lofty faith 

We lay thy outworn garment by, 
Give death but what belongs to death, 

And life the life that cannot die ! 

Not for a soul like thine the calm 

Of selfish ease and joys of sense ; 
But duty, more than crown or palm, 

Its own exceeding recompense. 

Go up and on ! thy day well done. 

Its morning promise well fulfilled, 
Arise to triumphs yet unwon. 

To holier tasks that God has willed. 



420 APPENDIX. 

Go, leave behind thee all that mars 
The work below of man for man ; 

With the white legions of the stars 
Do service such as angels can. 

Wherever wrong shall right deny, 
Or suffering spirits urge their plea, 

Be thine a voice to smite the lie, 
A hand to set the captive free ! 



May, 1879. 



JoHX G. Whittier. 



THE DAY OF SMALL THINGS. 

BY JAMES KUSSELL LOWELL. 

«' Some time afterward, it was reported to me by the city officers that they 
had ferreted out the paper and its editor. His office was an obscure hole ; 
his only visible auxiliary a negro boy ; and his supporters a few very insig- 
nificant persons, of all colors."— Letter of Hon. H. G. Otis. 

In a small chamber, friendless and unseen, 

Toiled o'er his types one poor, unlearned young man ; 

The place was dark, unfurnitured and mean, 
Yet there the freedom of a race began. 

Help came but slowly ; surely, no man yet 

Put lever to the heavy world with less ; 
What need of help ? He knew how types were set, 

He had a dauntless spirit and a press. 

Such earnest natures are the fiery pith. 

The compact nucleus round which systems grow ; 

Mass after mass becomes inspired therewith, 
And whirls impregnate with the central glow. 

O Truth! O Freedom! how are ye still born 

In the rude stable, in the manger nursed! 
What humble hands unbar those gates of morn 

Through which the splendors of the new day burst ! 



APPENDIX. 421 

Wliat! shall one monk, scarce known beyohd h-'s cell 
Front Rome's far-reaching bolts, and scorn her frown ? 

Brave Luther answered, YEs.'-that thunder's swell 
Rocked Europe, and discharmed the triple crown. 

"Whatever can be known of Earth wo know," 
^Tv^'^.T^'^ Europe's wise men, in their snail-shells curled; 

JS o ! saul one man in Genoa ; and that No 

Out of the dark created this New World. 

Who is it will not dare himself to trust ? 

Who is it hath not strength to stand alone? 
Who is it thwarts and bilks the inward must? 

He and his w^orks like sand from earth are blown. 

Men of a thousand shifts and wiles, look here! 

See one straightforward conscience put in" pawn 
To win a world! See the obedient sphere, 

By bravery's sihiple gravitation drawn! 

Shall we not heed the lesson taught of old, 

And by the Present's lips repeated still, 
In our own single manhood to be bold, 

Fortressed in conscience and impregnable will ? 

We stride the river daily at its spring, 

Nor in our childish thoughtlessness foresee 
What myriad vassal streams shall tribute bring, 

How like an equal it shall greet the sea. 

O small beginnings, ye are great and strong, 
Based on a faithful heart and weariless brain; 

Ye build the future fair, ye conquer wrong, 
Ye earn the crown, and wear it not in vain ! 



INDEX. 



A. 

Abolitionists urge immediate emancipation, 111 ; advocate education of col- 
orcd youtli, 119; attempt to put them down by law, 213-219. 

Adams, John Qumcy, liis estimate of the Union, 342 

Adams, Dr Nehemiah, drafts Pastoral Letter, 262; addresses questions to 
slavcliolders and is rebulied by Gov. Wise, 269. 

"African Repository," The, extract from, 103. 

Alton, III., riot in, and death of Mr. Lovejoy, 226. 

American churches favor slavery, 70. 

American Board hostile to anti-slavery, 74. 

American Bible Society, its ne-lect of the slaves, 157; proposition from 
Anti-Slavery Society ignored, 157. 

American Tract Society mutilates publications in the interests of slavery, 

American Union for the relief and improvement of the colored race, 189; 
pro-slavery in its character, 189; its early death, 190. 

American Anti-Slavery Society, organized in New York, 145 ; delegates in- 
sulted, 149; spirit of the convention, 149; its declaration of sentiments, 
lo2; closing address of the president, 154; begins operations in New 
York, lo5; its officers, 155; large subscriptions for its work, 156; its 
first anniversary, 157; sends its publications to the South, 191; excite- 
ment in consequence, 192 ; publications burned in Charleston, 193 ; clergy 
approve the deed, 193 ; society admits women, 286; protest against the 
measure, 286 ; scheme for rescinding the action, 287 ; meeting in New 
York, 290; admission of women confirmed, 291 ; withdrawal of certain 
members and organization of new society, 292; bad effects of the 
secession, 319; the organization still formidable, 320 ; its management 
transferred from New York to Boston, 322 ; its anniversarv in New York 
in 1850 disturbed by the llynders mob, 381 ; driven from New York for 
two years, 381 ; Mr. Garrison advocates its dissolution in 1864, and his 
withdrawal, 388; Mr. Quincy's concurrence with Mr. Garrison, 388; 
the author's view of the subject, 388 : the continuance of the society 
voted, 389. "^ 

American Abolition Society, 340. 

American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society organized, 292 ; comments on, 
293-294; testimony of Lewis Tappan concerning, 294; the new society 
a failure, 296. 

American Missionary Association, 296. 

American slavery and Methodism, 237. 

Andrew, J. O., Methodist bishop, 240. 

Anti-Slavery meetings, ministers reluctant to pray in, 72. 

Anti-Slavery Society, the first, 83; meetings and organization, 83-86; its 
preamble and constitution, 85-86 ; original members, 86 ; its first officers, 
87 ; its appeal to the public, 89. 



424 INDEX. . 

Anti-Slavery sentimei>t, clerical, 140; declaration of, 140 ; its substance, 141 j 
eminent signers, 141. 

Anti-Slavery Society in Lane Seminary organized, 169 ; anti-slavery agita- 
tion, progress in, 182. 

"Anti-Slavery Bugle," The, 324. 

Anti-Slavery workers, various, 333. 

Apologies for slavery, 159. 

Attitude of the churches, 159. 

Appendix, 404-421. 

Austin, James T., defends the Alton mob, in Faneuil Hall, 228; rebuked by 
Wendell Phillips, 229. 

B. 

Bacon, Benj. C, member first anti-slavery society, 86. 

Bacon, Ilev. Dr. Leonard, champion of Colonization, 104; his opinion of 

slavery, 104. 
Baltimore, Garrison's arrival there, 28 ; its slave traffic, 30 ; Garrison's views 

denounced, 31 ; cflForts to crush the new movement, 32. 
Bailey, Dr. Gamaliel, edits "The Philanthropist," 222. 
Baptists, Freewill, their anti-slavery record, 81 ; refuse to commune with 

slaveholders, 81. 
Baptists, their complicity with slavery, 244. 
Barnes, Albert, his declaration concerning slavery, 156; his view of the duty 

of the churches, 247. 
Beecher, Edward, 224. 

Beecher, Lyman, disapproves of Garrison's views, 44-45 ; becomes president 
of Lane Seminary, 1G5; his course with the students, 167; discourages 
discussion of the slavery question, 174 ; sacrifices a great opportunity, 
177. 
Beecher, Henry Ward, his charge of bitterness against Mr. Garrison, 56. 
Bible, The, Mr. Garrison's opinion of, 365. 

Bumey, James G., 190; emancipates his slaves, 190; joins the abolitionists, 
192; his characteristics, 191; persecuted in the South, 220; establishes 
a paper in Danville, Ky., 220; removes it to Ohio, 221 ; citizens of Cin- 
ciimati demand its suppression, 221 ; its office destroyed by a mob, 222 ; 
his testiniony concerning the churches, 247. 
Blagden, Rev. Dr., reports concerning, 275. 

Boston, Thompson riobbed in, 136; pro-slavery demonstration in, 195; fe- 
male anti-slavery society attacked, 196; Mr. Garrison mobbed and 
lodged in jail, 198. 
•' Boston Courier," The, prints letters from Garrison while in prison, 35; 

favors suppression of "The Liberator," 213. 
Bowring, John, regrets exclusion of women from London Conference, 350. 
Bradford, Rev. Arthur B., 250. 

Bright, John, speech at the Garrison breakfast in London, 353-354. 
Brougham, Lord, speech by, 97. 
Buffum, Arnold, lecturing agent, 94; battles with the Colonization Society 

94; debate with Mr. Danforth, 116. 
Burleigh, Charles C. and Wm. H,, 127. 
Buxton, Sir T. F., first interview with Garrison, 133. 

C. 

Canterbury, Conn., Miss Crandall's School at, 124. 
Caste, Spirit of, 102. 

Channing Dr., Remarks on Milton, 59; his tribute to abolitionists, 201; 
condemns the Alton riot, 227 ; his view of the Constitution, 336. 



INDEX. 425 



Chapman, Maria Weston, her work, 205-206. 

Cliarlcston, S. C, post-office broken open by a mob, 192; anti-slavery 

mail-matter l)urncd in, 193. 
Child. David I-cc, member first anti-slavery society, 86; edits " Anti- 

Slavcrv Standard," 297. 
Child, Lvdia Maria, her "Appeal," 139; edits "Anti-Slavery Standard," 

297. ' 
"Christian Advocate, The," abuses abolitionists, 158. 
Christianitv, elevated by the anti-slavery movement, 371, 372. 
Churches. Attitude of, 234. 
Cincinnati, Lane Seminary, founded in, 165; pro-slavery sentiment of the 

city, 171 ; Wattles' colored school in, persecuted, 171. 
Clarkson on the Slave Trade, 373. 
Clerical Abolitionists, Appeal of, 275; replied to by Mr.'Garrison and A. A. 

Phelps, 276; its author afterwards retracts, 276. 
Coffin, Joshua, member first anti-slavery society, 86. 
College for colored youths proposed, 120; scheme considered in colored 

convention, 121; opposition to, 122. 
Colleges, Northern, prevent agitation among students, 185. 
Collins, John A., 290, 300. 
Colonization Scheme. Mr. Garrison's exposure of, 130; its repudiation by 

English abolitionists, 130. 
Colonization Society, Dr. Beecher's appeal for, 89; Mr. Garrison's reply, 

89; opposed bv Arnold Buffum, 91; its prejudice against the negro, 

103; Garrison's battle with, 112; Garrison's " Thoughts " on, lU; col- 
ored people opposed to, 117 ; their protests, 118. 
Colored Lad, Anecdote of, 101. 

Colored People, their expulsion from the country impracticable, 119. 
Colored Youth, Education of, 119. 
Colorphobia Illustrated, 100. 
"Columbia (S. C.) Telescope," extract from, 186. 
Congregational Association of Mass., pastoral letter by, 262; comments on, 

'268-265; Whitticr's poem on, 205-267. 
Conservative Anti-Slavery Society organized in Boston, 188; its failure, 

190. 
Constitution, demoralizing influence of, 338; claimed by some to be anti- 
slavery, 339 ; fallacy of the claim, 340 ; Garrison's remarks thereon, 341. 
Converse, Kev. A., opposes education of the blacks, 122. 
Covenanters. Old School, opposed to slavery, 250. 
Cox, Dr. S. H., preaches against slavery, 162. 
Crandall, Prudence, her school for young ladies at Canterbury, Conn., 124; 

admits colored pupil, 124; her school denounced in town meeting, 125; 

receives new pupils, 125; persecutions commenced, 126 ; committed to 

jail, 127 ; her house attacked and fired, 127. 
Crandall, Dr. Reuben, thrown into jail in Washington, 218. 
Curtis, Geo., of R. I., opposes Southern demands, 215. 

D. 

Danforth, Rev. Joshua N., his sneers at the anti-slavery movement, 87; 

challenge to debate, 116; attacks Mr. Buffum, 116. 
Day of Small Things, poem by Lowell, 420-421. 
District of Columbia, slavery in discussed, 327. 
Disunion, question of, 334. 

Douglass, Frederick, criticises the Free Soil movement, 315. 
Dred Scott Decision, its influence on the country, 380. 
Dresser, Amos, flogged as an abolitionist in Nashville, Tenn., 218. 

54 



426 INDEX. 



E. 

Early friends of " The Liberator," 53. 

Edwards, Dr. Jonatlian, his anli-sLivcry sermon printed, 156. 
EtfecTs of Dostoii mob, 203. 

Emancipation, Immediate, advocated by Mr. Garrison, 30. 
Emancipation Proclamation, 382. 
" Emancipator, The," becomes anti-slavery orijan, l-')5. 
Emerson, llalph Waldo, opens his pulpit to the abolitionists, 90. 
English press on slavery, 97. 

England, Mr. Garrison's first visit to, 129; opportune arrival in, 130. 
Exeter Ilall, Garrison's speech in, 131. 
" Evangelist, New Yori\," a powerful ally, 157. 
Evarts, Jeremiali, Garrison's interview with, 45. 

Everett, Edward, his servility in Congress, 215; his message while Gover- 
nor of Mass., 21C. 

P. 

Fanenil Hall, Pro-Slavery meeting in, 195; meeting to condemn the Alton 
outrage, 228. 

Female Anti-Slaverv Society in Boston mobbed, 196. 

Fisl;, Dr. Wilbur, his views, 238. 

Folsorn, Abigail, anecdote concerning, 304. 

Foster, Stei)iien S., his character, 331; Lowell's lines on, 331. 

Free Church of Scotland, collects funds in the Southern States, 351 ; its 
action dcnotniccd in Scotland, 351 ; protests from American Abolition- 
ists, 352; Mr. Garrison speaks on the subject, 352. 

Free discussion, Mr. Garrison's faith in, 374-376. 

Freedom of the Mind, (Sonnet), 34. i 

Free Presbyterian Church, organized, 250. 

Frothingham, O. B., 329. 

Fuller, .Jolin E., member first Anti-Slavery Society, 86. 

Fugitive Slave Law, its effects, 380. 

Furman, Rev. Kichard, Southern Baptist clergyman, sale of liis chattels, 
244. 

Furness, Rev. Dr. Wm. H., 324. 

G. 

Garnet, Henry Highland, 290. 

Garrison, Wm. Lloyd, birth and boyhood, 24; learns the printing trade, 2.5; 
contributes to the newspapers, 25; makes acquaintance of Lnndy, 25; 
edits the "Free Press " and " The National Philanthropist," 25; estab- 
lishes "The Join-nal of the Times," 26; petitions Congress for al)olition 
of slavery in District of Columbia, 26; joins Mr. Lnndy in Baltimore, 
28; their paper, 29; advocates hnmediate emancipation, 29; sued for 
lii)el, convicted and imprisoned, 33 ; sonnets by Mr. Garrison, 33, 34, 39, 
62; line paid by Arthur Tappan, 38: dissolves partnership with Lundy, 
38; starts "The Liberator," 39-43; lirst meets Arthur Tappan, 41; 
rewards offered for his arrest in the South, 60; replies to the " National 
Intelligencer," 64; his early Orthodoxy, 67; sonnet, " The Sai>bath 
Day," 69; secretary first Anti-Slavery Society, 87 ; his prophecy regard- 
ing* it, 88; criticises Lvman Beecher, 89; denounces the spirit of caste, 
102; remarks in 1832, 106; address in Park Street Church, 112; 
battle with Colonization Societv, 124; his " Thoughts on Colonization," 
114; visits England, 129; speech in Exeter Hall, 131 ; letter in " London 
Patriot," 132 ; incident concerning, 133 ; invites George Thompson to visit 
the United States, 134; scheme to form National Anti-Slavery Society, 
144; his " Declaration of Sentiments," 151-153; mobbed in Boston, 197; 



INDEX. 427 

dragf?cd through the streets and lodged in jail, 198 ; discharged next day, 
200 ; his " heresies " denounced, 273 ; replies to a " Clerical Appeal," 276 ; 
remarks on the Alton tragedy, 281 ; discusses the Peace question, 282; 
plan to put him out of ofhce, and its failure, 283; his tril)utc to Arthur 
Tappan,29a; opposes the Liberty party and reasons therefor, 307-314; 
advocates " No union Avith slaveholders," 338 ; his position vindicated l»v 
the Rebellion and its results, 348; his visit to England in ISIO, 34'J; 
declines to be a member of the London Anti-Slavery Conference, 3.")0; 
third trip to Great Britain in 1846, 351 ; condemns the policy of tlic Free 
Church of Scotland, 352; visits Europe in 1867, 352; attends Exposition 
at Paris, 352; public breakfast tendered him in London, 353; distin- 
guished guests present, 353; speech by John Bright, 353; official address 
by Goldwin Smith, seconded by Earl Russell, 355, 356; John Stuart 
Mill's address, 356; Mr. Garrison's reply, 356-358; speech bv George 
Thompson, 358 ; other honors to Mr. Garrison, 358; his visit to Europe in 
1877, 359 ; visits to old friends, 360 ; his religious opinions, 363-360 ; denies 
the charge of infidelity, 367-368 ; impatient with Lincoln's administra- 
tion, 3S2; satistied with his Proclamation of Emancipation, and advo- 
cates his re-election, 382 ; visits Charleston at the flag-raising on Fort 
Sumter, 382; his reception and the speeches on the occasion, 383-387 ; 
discontinues " The Liberator " in 1865, and his valedictory, 390-392 ; his 
last years, 393-395; testimonial to him, 394; author's estimate of his 
character, 395-399 ; his last illness and death, 399-401; his funeral, 402. 
403. 

Garrisonian movement, its effect on the Republican party, 345. 

Gay, Sydney Howard, 297. 

" Genius of Universal Emancipation," The, 28. 

Glasgow Emancipation Society invites Mr. Garrison to visit Scotland, 351. 

Goodcll, \Vm , edits " Emancipator," 156; his " Slavery and Anti-Slaverv." 
317. 

Green, Beriah, 144; presides at organization of Am. Anti-Slavery Sec, 154. 

Greeliy, Horace, his " Great American Conflict," 317. 

Grimkc, Angelina and Sarah, address Northern women, 259; their success. 
260. 

Guiltless Prisoner, The (Sonnet), 33. 

Gurlcy, Ralph R., his opinion of the negro, 104. 

H. 

Hall, Robert B., member first Anti-Slavery Society, 86. 

H.:yne, Robert Y., writes Mayor of Boston concerning " The Liberator," 60. 

" Herald of Freedom," 301. 

Higginson, Thomas Wcntworth, 329. 

Hitchcock, Jane Elizabeth, 324. 

Hoi ley, Hon. Myron, 305. 

Hopkins, Samuel, his Dialogue on Slavery printed, 156. 

Hopper, Isaac T., 145. 

I. 

Infidelity, charge of, against Mr. Garrison and his defence, 363-369. 
Introduction, by John G. Whittier, ix.-xii. 

J. 

Jackson, Francis, his bravery, 203. 

Jay, Hon. Wm., his testimony, 80; his " Inquiry," 163; its powerful influ- 
ence, 163; denounced by the pro-siavery press, 163; loses his place on 
the bench, 163; his noble work for the cause, 1G3; arraigns the churches, 
249; favors disunion, 342. 



428 INDEX. 



Jocelyn, Rev Simeon S., 119. 

John: on, Oliver, member first Anti-Slavery Society, 86. 

Johnson, Siimucl, 329. 

" Journal of Commerce " exults over abolition divisions, 320. 

K. 

Kellcy, Abhy, 291, tribute to her, 303. 

Kendall, Amos, Postmtvster-General, upholds Southern Postmasters, 194. 

Knapp, Isaac, member first Anti-Slavery Society, 86. 

Ii. 

Laight Street Presbyterian Church, damaged by a mob, 162. 

Lane Theological Seminary, 165 ; endowed with ten thousand dollars by 
Arthur 'lappan, 16o; Lyman Bcecher, its President, 165; its students, 
166; they form a colonization society, 166; debate the slavery question, 
16r ; result of the debate, 168; Anti-Slavery Society organized, 169; Dr. 
Bcecher discourages discussion, 174; trustees disband Anti-Slavery 
Society in the Seminary, 174; Gag law applied, 174; Students leave the 
Seminary, 175; their appeal to the Christian public, 175; answer of the 
Faculty, 175; they compliment the students, 176 ; complain of their 
imprudence, 176. 

Leavitt, licv. Joshua, edits N. Y. " Evangelist," 157. 

Lectures on Slavery, by A. A. Phelps, 140. 

Legislatures of certain Southern States, demands of, 214. 

" Liberator, The," started in Boston, 39-43 ; the South excited over It, 43 ; size 
and appearance of first volume, 50; its office, 51; discontinued in 1865^ 
390; Mr. Garrison's valedictory. 390-392. 

Liberty party, formation of, 305; Mr. Garrison opposed to, 307; liis reasons 
therefor, 307-314. 

London Anti-Siavqry Conference refuses to admit female delegates, 349. 

Loving, Ellis Gray, member first Anti-Slavery Society, 86. 

Lovejoy, Elijah P., 222; edits a religious paper in St. Louis, 223; condemns 
the lynehing of a negro, 223 ; office mobbed, 223 ; removes to Alton, 
111., 223; property destroyed by a mob, 223; establishes the "Alton 
Observer," 224; defends his rights in a public meeting, 224 ; another 
riot and his death, 226. 

Lowell, James Russell, tribute to Mrs. Chapman, 207; lines on Phillips, 230; 
contributes to "Anti-Slavery Standard," 297; lines on Abby Kelley, 
303; on Stephen S. Foster, 331 ; on Parker Pillsbury, 332 ; "The Day 
of Small Things," 420-421. 

Lundy, Benjamin, his early labors, 21 ; meets Mr. Garrison, 27; their part- 
nership, 28; partnership dissolved, 38. 

Lunt, George, his report to the Mass. Legislature, 216. 

M. 

Mahan, Rev. Asa, 174. 

Marry, Gov. L., 214. 

Martineau, Harriet, 203. 

May, Rev Samuel J., befriends Miss Crandall, 126; remonstrated with by a 
New York merchant, 184 ; his experience with the Quakers, 252. 

Massachusetts, Gov. Everett's recommendations to legislature of, disre- 
garded, 217. 

" Massachusetts Abolitionist," The, 283, 285. 

Massachusetts Abolition Society organized, 284. 

McDnfFy, Gov. of S. Carolina, his message, 213. 

McKim, James Miller, 3J3. 



INDEX. 429 



Methodist Book Concern, suppress anti-slavery passages in their reprints, 

185. 
Methodist Episcopal Church, anti-slavery agitation in, 234-243; case of 

Bishop Andrew, 240; division of the church, 241. 
Methodism, Whcdon's defence of, 75. 

Mill, John Stuart, address at the breakfast to Mr. Garrison, 356. 
Ministers decline to pray in anti-slavery meetings, 72. 
Mob year, 183. 
Mob in Boston, 196-198. 
Montpelier, Vt., mob in, 208. 
Morgan, Prof. John, 168. 
" Morning Star," The, Freewill Baptist organ ; its influence against slavery, 

81. 
Mott, Lucretia, 256. 

N, 

Nat Turner Insurrection, 61 ; debate on in Virginia legislature, 107. 

•* National Intelligencer, The," extract from, 63 ; Garrison's reply, 64. 

National Anti-Slavery Society, 144; its convention in Philadelphia, 147. 

" National Era," The, 295. 

" National Anti-Slavery Standard," 296. 

Ncwcomb, Stillman B., member first Anti-Slavery Society, 86. 

New England Convention admits women, 271; the innovation denounced, 

273. 
New England Anti-Slavery Society, 86 ; appeal to the public, 89. 
New England Non-Rcsistance Society, 282. 
New Haven, proposed location of Colored College in, 120 ; strong opposition 

to, 123. 
New Organization, The, 284; not a success, 298. 
New York, headquarters Anti-Slavery Society in, 155; Dr. Cox's church 

attacked, 162 ; Lewis Tappan's house sacked, 162. 
New York City Anti-Slavery Society, " Emancipator " transferred to, 288. 
Newspapers, extracts from Southei-n, 186. 
Newspapers, Garrisonian after 1840, 325. 
Northficld, N. H., anti-slavery lecturer arrested in, 188. 
Noyes Academy, Canaan, N. H., ruined by a mob, 188. 

O. 

O'Connell, Daniel, regrets exclusion of women from London Conference, 

350. 
Orthodox Abolitionists, they establish a new society, 284. 

P. 

Park St. Church, colored merchant in, 100. 

Parker, Miss Mary S., 196. 

Parker, Theodore, sympathizes with the Garrison movement, 328. 

Parties limited by the Constitution, 309. 

Pastoral Letter of Massachusetts General Association, 262. 

Peace question, The, 282. 

Pennsylvania Hall burned, 211. 

" Pennsylvania Freemen," 323. 

Phelps, Rev. Amos A., becomes an abolitionist, 73 ; his definition of slavery, 
73; his noble service, 74; his lecture on slavery, 140; ten thousand dol- 
lars offered in New Orleans for his arrest, 187; replies to the "Clerical 
Appeal," 276. 



430 INDEX. 



Philadelphia, National Anti-SIavcry Convention- in, 147; unfriendly spirit 
toward it, 148; colored people mobbed, 162; Pennsylvania Hall in 
l^irncd, 211. 

♦•Philanthropist, The," established by Mr. Buraey, 221. 

rhillii)S, Wendell, speech in the Alton mecthig at Faneuil Hall, 229; Low- 
ell's lines on, 230; remarks at Mr. Garrison's funeral, 404-416. 

Pillsljury, I'arUer, 332; Lowell's description of, 332. 

Postmasters at Charleston, and other places at the South, refuse to deliver 
anti-slavery publications, 194; instructions from Postmaster-General, 
194. 

Pro-slavery demonstration in Boston, 194. 

Publishers erase anti-slavery sentiments from reprints, 185. 

Q. 

Quaker, Anecdote of, 97. 

Quakers, early opposition to slavery, 20 ; their meeting-houses closed against 
early anti-slavery lecturers, 96; discourage anti-slavery agitation, 251. 

Quincy, Edmund,. ioins the abolitionists, 234; speaks in anti-slavery meet- 
ing on death of Lovejoy, 231; effective anti-slavery writer, 232; con- 
tributes to "Anti-Slavery Standard," 297; coincides with Mr. Garrison 
as to the dissolution of the American Anti-Slavery Society, 388. 

R. 

Rankin, Rev. John, 2.50. 

" Ilichmond Whig," extract from, 186. 

"llight and Wrong in Massachusetts," 285. 

Ptobinson, Marius Pv,., missionary to colored people, in Cincinnati, 178; in 
Mr. Birncy's oflice, 179; warned at Grandvillc, G., 179; mobbed at Ber- 
lin, tarred and feathered, 180; edits the "Anti Slavery Bugle," 180. 

Rogers, Nathaniel P., edits " Herald of Freedom," 301 ; alienation from 
Mr. Garrison, 302; Pierpont's collection from his writings, 302. 

Russell, Earl, his public apology, 356. 

S. 

Sabbath Day, The, Sonnet, 69. 

" Savannah Georgian," The, testimony of, 373. 

Scott, Rev. Orange, assailed in Worcester, 188 ; " Methodist Anti-Slavery 

Advocate," 237. 
Sectarianism in the anti-slavery movement condemned, 280. 
SewcU, Samuel E., member first anti-slavery society, 86. 
Shcdd, Dr. W. T. G., on hard language, 157. 
Slaveholders alarmed at Garrison's views, 30. 
Slavery, early opponents of, 20; hopes of its early abolition, 92; abolished 

bv Southern madness, 311. 
Shelter for Colored Orphans, Philadelphia, set on fire, 211. 
Sloane, Rev. J. R. W., 250. 
Sniitli, Gcrrit, joins abolitionists, 209. 
Smith, Goldwin, address at the Garrison breakfast, 355. 
Snelling, Wni. J., member first anti-slavery society, 86. 
Snowdon, Father Samuel, anecdote of, 72. 
Sonnets by Mr. Garrison, 33, 34, 39, 62, 69. 
Soulc, Bishop, his views, 238. 
South, spirit of the, 186. 
Southern clergy, threats of, 186-187. 
" Spectator, The Christian," 104. 



INDEX. 431 



Spiritualism, Mr. Garrison's belief in, 376. 

Stanton, Ilcnry B., 172. 

Stewart, Alvan, 210. 

Stockton, Henry K., member first anti-slavery society, 8G. 

Srorrs, Uev. Charles B., 142; signs Mr. Phelps' declaration, 143. 

Storrs, llev. Gei)rge, arrested in Nortlilicld, N. IL, 183. 

St. Louis, Mr. Love joy's paper in, suppressed, 223. 

Subjects omitted, 377. 

Sullivan, lion. Wm., 213. 

Sumter, Fort, Flag-raisiug at, 382, 383. 

T. 

Tappan, Arthur, pays Mr. GaiTison's fine, 38; first meets Garrison, 41; 
contrilnites one "thousand dollars for colored college, 120; employs 
counsel for Miss Crandall, 127; endows Lane Theological Seminary, 
1G5; aids Mr. Wattles, 170; urged to -witlidraw from the anti-slavery 
cause, 184; twenty thousand dollars offered in New Orleans for bis 
seizure, 187 ; bis testimony concerning the churches, 249. 

Tappan, Lewis, interviews Bible Society, 157; remarks by, 249; views in 
1855, 249. 

Testimonies against the churches, 247-249. 

Texas, Annexation of, discussed, 327. 

Thacher, Moses, member first anti-slavery society, 8G; his appeal to tho 
public, 89. 

Thatcher. Judge Peter, his charge to jury, 212. 

Thome, James A., 172. 

Thompson, George, 133 ; Brougham's tribute to, 134 ; his visit to the United 
States, 135; mobbed in Boston, 136; second visit to the U. S., 137; his 
character, 138; attends flag-raising at Fort Sumter, 383. 

Trask, llcv. George, speech in^N. E. Anti-Slavery Convention, 284. 

TJ. 

Union, The, John Quincy Adams' estimate of, 342. 
Utica, N. Y., anti-slavery meeting mobbed in, 208. 

V. 

" Vermont Chronicle," opposes abolitionists, 208. 
Virginia, its domestic slave trade, 109. 

W. 

Walker, James W., 325. 

Wattles, Augustus, establishes colored school in Cincinnati, 170. 

Wayland, Dr., his views, 244. 

Wcid, Theodore D., student at Lane, 168; interviews Dr. Eeecher, 169; 

writes appeal of Lane students to the public, 175; his "Slavery as it 

is," 178. 
Weslcyan Methodist Church, formation of, 240. 
Western Anti-Slavery Socictv, 324. 
West India Islands, abolition of slavery in, 164; its encouragement to 

American abolitionists, 164. 
Western Ilcscrve College, its anti-slavery sentiment, 142. 
Whedon, Kev. Dr., claims that Methodism was early anti-slavery, /5; 

claim refuted, 76-78. 
Whipple, Charles K., 329 



432 INDEX. "^ -■ ^^ 



£■£. 

a 



Whittier, John G., introduction by, ix.-xii. ; his early songs, 96; his poem 

on death of Charles B. Storrs, 143 ; poem on clerical oppressors, 193 ; 

poem on Pastoral Letter, 265-267 ; criticises the " Clerical Appeal," 279 ; 

poems on Mr. Garrison, 417-420. 
Wilberforce, death of, 131. 

"Williams, Ransom G., indicted in Alabama, 218. 

"Wilson, Henry, his " History of the Rise and Fall of the Slarc Power," 317. 
Windham County, why RepubUcan, 128. 
Woman Question, The, 271. 
Women, Activity of, 254; their petition for the abolition \(f slavery, 255; 

presence in the American Anti-Slavery Convention, 25^ 
Worcester, Mass., Rev. Orange Scott assailed in, 188. 

Z. 

Zion's Herald, friendly to abolitionists, 158. 



in-^ 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

' III I I !! 



007 197 995 7 



fi 


■\\ 






1 




